#lock the mage of cards

[sonicfanj]

Lock: the Mage of Cards - Prologue

The following is a work of fan fiction based on Sega Sammy Holding’s Sonic the Hedgehog™. by Joshua D. Tarwater and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.* *SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS retains full rights over the Sonic the Hedgehog™ intellectual property and can terminate or take control of this work at any time.

Not all stories start from their beginnings. If it were so, then the tale of Lock, the Mage of Cards, would have begun some time before the mage first donned her distinctive purple dress. The beginning of her tale would have been found on some distant star in a past long forgotten, when a people lost their home to a great evil they would lead to this star, Lock’s home. An evil that she joined Sonic the Hedgehog in defeating when he inherited the battle of the Starfall Ancients. A battle when Lock first truly realized that her potential for magic far exceeded the beliefs of the struggling to remember who she really was Amy Rose. But while the beginning of the tale of Lock, the start of her story came after that battle, when Amy Rose sought out a means to train herself in the use of magic as part of her journey of self-refinement. And so it was in a waking nightmare that the adventures of Lock began.

The nightmare that Amy woke to was one of many sensations. Several of them were very wrong, but confusion and the darkness she woke to were at the forefront of her mind.

‘Ugh… what? What happened?’

The dazed thoughts of the girl were not particularly useful, but she could hardly collect her thoughts from the lingering trappings of sleep. A sleep Amy’s every instinct told her was not natural or welcomed. Much as she wanted to try and collect her thoughts on her instincts, her growing consciousness was growing equally distracted by the sensation of a delicate sheet of some kind against her face. She desired to pull it away, but her arms did not respond to her desires, and she grew frustrated. Turning her frustration to energy, Amy sat up as she swung her hips and waist in tandem.

‘Awah~!!’ the thought came rather than escaped as Amy discovered several problems that accompanied her upward swing. The most notable of these was her difficulty balancing as she could not extend her tail to counter her movement. ‘Eh~! Really! What’s happening!’

Under most circumstances, Amy would have voiced her frustrations and confusion, but she could not open her mouth and her voice refused to come out for even so much as a whimper. As her arms were still refusing to respond to her desires, Amy’s self-examination had to start with her unresponsive tail. Naturally, as it was unresponsive, her next choice of focus were her legs. Fortunately, at least at her hips, her legs responded, though they remained as unresponsive as her arms and tail from her knees down. Still, she could at least feel them all the way to her enclosed toes awkwardly flopping against the ground. It was not much movement however as something kept her thighs fast together, and the familiar feeling of tights against another fabric assured Amy she was likely wearing a mermaid style dress. The attire was a far cry from her usual red dress, but also the jumpstart her mind needed to remember what had happened.

‘That’s right, I was looking for a magic cloak to help me get better at using magic! The dumb thing wrapped me up, didn’t it!’

Whether she was right or not, Amy fully remembered that her current predicament began when she followed rumors of a magic cloak that could help the wearer train in magic. She was not expecting to have to battle it should she find it and was caught off guard when it engulfed her and stole her consciousness. Fully awake now though, Amy struggled to break free but found her impressive physical abilities were no match for the magical garment. Or more accurately cursed. But the potential for the garment being cursed did not spring to mind as her struggles revealed something far more chilling.

‘Eh… is my… is my tail gone…?’

It was not a question that took a lot to answer, and Amy’s adrenaline kept her panic at bay as she realized that she had indeed lost her tail, fully explaining the loss of balance she was dealing with. The absence of her tail, however, left her with a grim thought and she immediately fell onto her side. Her shoulder did not absorb the impact, the upper extreme of her ribs usually protected by the joint instead directly meeting the cold, hard surface she fell onto.

‘It’s… it’s GONE!!’ Amy’s thoughts exploded at the revelation of her missing limb, and she demonstrated impressive trunk strength as she flipped herself over and smashed her other armless side into the ground. ‘No way! They’re both gone!! So… I’m not tied up… it’s just that THIS STUPID CLOAK STOLE MY ARMS AND TAIL!!’

Shocked as Amy was, her anger overrode her situation and she struggled to rip the cloak with her legs so at least the mermaid dress form it had taken would not hamper her movements. It was futile as again the magic that the cloak was made of easily resisted her strength, and the useless state of her legs below her knees made any success meaningless.

‘It’s okay Amy,’ she tried to assure herself as she lay down on her back and stared up at the darkness beyond the cloth resting against her face. ‘You got into this mess so you can get out of it too. Even if you have to crawl like a worm to get help.’

The prospect was humiliating, but Amy had for a while forgotten why she had sought out the cloak that had transformed her into her currently helpless seeming state. Focusing solely on her physical abilities, she attempted to address her situation, only to realize the futility of any action in the dark.

‘I hope I haven’t gone blind too,’ Amy’s desperate whimper echoed within her own head, unable to escape. Very much like her as she felt a weight of some kind land on her chest and stare at her. ‘I’m really in trouble, aren’t I…?’

The terror of her situation, overwhelming as it was, did not assure the end of the pink hedgehog girl. She was, if anything, resilient and optimistic, full of more energy even in a state like this than most people could imagine exhibiting in a lifetime. Beyond that, she had sought out the transformative cloak to improve her ability to wield magic. That combination would be enough to allow her to save herself to a degree, and the evidence of her survival arrived at the home of the Rabbit family.

“Mother!” a young rabbit girl cheerfully cried out as she skipped into the living room of the Rabbit family home. She was carrying an envelope above her head and waved it enthusiastically. It’s a letter from Amy!”

“Is that so, Cream?” Vanilla the Rabbit asked with a calm demeanor as she wiped her hands on her apron and moved to intercept her excited daughter.

It had been some time since they had heard from Amy who had hurried off on some adventure or another after inviting Cream along to at least see her off. Something had happened to her on her last adventure with world famous hero and adventurer, Sonic the Hedgehog, and she was eager to share a story about a pair of lovers whose love transcended time as well as see to refining herself into a far better version of herself. Vanilla had offered to help Amy with any such refinements, but the hedgehog girl wouldn’t hear of it, claiming it was something she had to do for herself. Not one to hold back the girl who gleefully chased after Sonic and his adventures, Vanilla did not push the matter. However, the lack of communication from Amy in a fair while had made Cream start to worry, and though Vanilla was sure Amy was fine, seeing Cream beam at a letter from her best friend brought a smile to the mother rabbit’s face.

“Shall I read it Cream?” Vanilla offered as she took a seat in her favorite chair with her daughter scrambling into her lap.

“Yes please, Mother!” Cream requested excitedly as the family chao, Cheese and Chocola drifted over on curious wings.

“Very well,” Vanilla allowed herself a chuckle as she accepted the envelope from Cream and opened up. “Oh my!”

“What’s the matter Mother?” Cream asked at the surprise her mother expressed while turning through the pages of the letter.

“I’m not quite sure Cream, but it would seem that Amy forgot to actually write anything in her excitement.”

Amy Rose was an excitable girl on the cusp of being a young woman and it would be no surprise if she had managed something so silly. Cream, however, did not look convinced as Vanilla took note of the envelope the blank paper had arrived in.

“My, there isn’t even anything on the envelope. However did the delivery person know to bring it here?”

“Mother, I don’t understand,” Cream confessed her confusion as she looked back at her befuddled mother. “Our address is right on the letter, and I can recognize Amy’s handwriting from here.”

“Wha–?” Vanilla asked, growing even more confused. “I don’t believe that my eyes are going bad.”

A moment of unusual silence punctuated the confusion of the Rabbit family and Vanila could not be sure that Cream wasn’t making the whole thing up. Not wanting to upset her daughter and having a funny feeling she couldn’t quite place, she decided instead of chastising her daughter to hand her the letter. “Perhaps you can read Amy’s letter for us instead Cream.”

“Are you sure?’ Cream questioned with a worried look for her mother.

Vanilla offered Cream a reassuring smile as she assured her daughter, “Of course. It’s for you after all.”

“Okay!” Cream nodded her head and smiled brightly back at her mother before reading the letter in front of her.

~Hi Cream!~ The letter began cheerfully enough and brought an air of calm to the young rabbit that Vanilla hadn’t seen in some time.

‘Perhaps it really is best to let her work herself through it.’

“I’m so sorry I haven’t been in touch,” Cream continued reading the letter aloud, oblivious to her mother’s thoughts and concerns.

~But you wouldn’t believe the mess I’ve landed myself into this time! I mean, I’ve been in some bad spots before, but I was sure that after what happened to me on the Starfall Islands that nothing could surprise me. I was so~ wrong! I bet you’d be surprised to, but just that I wrote this letter with magic should be surprising enough.~

“Magic?” Vanilla expressed her curiosity with a tilt of her head.

“That’s what Amy says,” Cream insisted, a hint of her mother’s disbelief wedging its way into her consciousness and twisting her tone to something more forceful.

“I actually hope it works and that I’m not the only one who can see it,” Cream continued reading the letter, the words seeming a direct challenge to Vanilla’s disbelief.

~It’d be such a waste too since I get so tired using magic. It’s so funny too since I normally have so much energy, but using magic really takes it out of me right now. I’m getting better with some of the things I can use it for, but the less familiar I am with using magic the more exhausting it is and the easier I fall asleep. I’ve been falling asleep at the most inconvenient of times and I’m probably going to end up falling asleep on the floor as soon as I finish. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine. A little sleep is all I need, and it’s not like I have a choice. It’s too complicated using magic to manipulate a pen and my handwriting looks dreadful. And I tire myself out faster that way too. Ooh~! It’d be so much easier if I had my–~

“Cream, what’s the matter?” Vanilla prodded her daughter as Cream came to a trembling halt in her reading. A look of utter dread had settled onto her features and tears were welling in her eyes at whatever it was she saw on the blank paper.

“I-it’s Amy, Mother,” Cream was on the verge of crying and could barely control herself. “She lost her arms!!”

~I hope that doesn’t scare you too much Cream. I’m not sure what happened, but I really am alright. I can’t use my hammer for more than a seat right now, but that’s not a bad thing since using magic to move around is pretty tiring too and it’s better than sitting on the ground. Don’t worry though Cream, I still have my legs at least. At least I’m sure I do. I can feel this cloak pressing them together and my feet are sticking out the bottom where it parts.

~Oh right, the cloak! Everything will make a lot more sense if I explain that first.

~Well, while I was on the Starfall Islands I kind of stumbled upon the idea that I might be a lot better at magic than I would have ever guessed, so when I heard rumors of a way to train more efficiently, I ran headlong after it. I’m supposed to be trying to refine myself, yet here I am running straight into trouble as always. And it’s so much too. You see Cream, I found this really pretty purple cloak with a stary sky pattern at the bottom, but when I touched it, it wrapped me up and I blacked out. When I woke up It was wrapped around me so tight there was no sign of my arms or that it ever was a cloak rather than a dress. It’s collar totally wrapped around the bottom of my head too and covered up my mouth. I can’t say anything, and my voice isn’t coming out either.

~Actually, now that I think about it, just like my arms I don’t actually feel my mouth. Hold on, let me just check…~

“It’s alright Cream,” Vanilla found herself comforting Cream for a second time as Amy’s letter detailed her coming to the realization that despite her face being full, she seemed to lack a mouth of any kind and had no real way to check since she seemed to have been deprived of her tongue and lips in addition to any jaw functionality. Unpleasant as it was to read, Vanilla had more luck calming Cream down this time as there was no nasty spat between the mother and daughter as had happened the first time. Vanilla’s doubt and Amy’s lacking arms was too much and when she chastised her daughter Cream’s emotions and terror at Amy’s condition revealed that the girl’s emotions were anything but an act.

“But I will have to have a stern word with Amy when next she visits,” Vanilla spoke aside to her comforting of her daughter. “I have no doubt that Amy is quite overwhelmed herself by her situation, but she forgets that Cream is still so young and not at all prepared for such awful stories.”

~It’s a good thing I figured out how to use magic to feed myself. That was the scariest part of this whole adventure. I really thought I was going to die until I figured it out. But it’s not satisfying at all, and I can’t wait until I figure this all out and can enjoy one of Vanilla’s homecooked meals with you again. Even if I could actually eat though, it wouldn’t be good to visit since this silly cloak grows really dangerous giant thorns anytime anyone gets close. I feel like a little kid who can’t keep her spines down!~

“What’s wrong this time Cream?” Vanilla asked as Cream paused, her tone of voice turning confused as she read Amy’s letter.

“I don’t understand mother, doesn’t Amy use that super hair relaxer because she can’t get her spines to cooperate?” Cream asked as she looked back at Vanilla.

Vanilla donned a strained smile as she tried not to let her daughter know that her words would have stabbed Amy deep had she heard them. She could not dispute her daughter’s blunt observation however as the Rabbit family home had become home to more than one bottle of the product in question due to Amy’s frequent stays. And there was no doubt that Amy loved the product as Vanilla had caught her on more than one occasion fretting dramatically over what she would do if they ever stopped making it. She both wanted to look cute for Sonic no less not stab him by accident. The super hair relaxer made her quite confident with the idea of being held in Sonic’s arms snuggly and her silly daydreams would quickly get the better of her.

‘Still, sometimes I wonder if Amy is ashamed of being a hedgehog,’ Vanilla allowed her thoughts to wander a moment. ‘She seems to reject her own nature at every opportunity, and it couldn’t possibly be healthy for her. Perhaps there is still some of this refinement that she seeks that I can help her with after all.’

~That’s really the big problem however,~ Amy’s letter continued, ~is just that I think this cloak really was what I was looking for. Due to all the curses on it I’m completely dependent on magic for everything. Eating, moving, writing a letter, and probably a lot more I haven’t figured out yet.

~It’s just so hard sometimes. I haven’t figured out how to talk with anyone and the veil that showed up with this weird transformation doesn’t seem to let anyone see my face, though I can see them just fine. The hat that came with it isn’t much help either. It’s surprisingly alive, and I think it’s supposed to help me, but all it ever seems to do is pull me into more trouble and get itself into nothing but trouble. Maybe it’s cursed too. The weird Ring-shaped locks that are all over me are on it too. At least two of them to go with the five on me. I’m sure if I can find the keys for them, I can get free and return back to normal, but I’m actually kind of scared to go looking for them.

~The only hint I think I have to them is this weird red string coming out of the keyhole of the Ring on my chest. I think if I follow it, it might lead me to the keys, but you know, whenever I look at it twirling around me, I can’t help but think of the Red String of Fate that ties me and Sonic together. I don’t want to follow it straight to Sonic. I’m not ready to see him yet. I’m supposed to be a lot more refined when I see him, not in a pitiful state like this. So, I think I’ll continue my adventures like this for a while longer and keep getting better at magic until I can find ways around these awful curses that have taken most of my ability to use my body away from me. I’ll try to get better at writing letters too, so you don’t have to worry. Though, I’ve spotted people taking my picture, though not always before this hat goes after them, so if you look up my appearance on the net with Gemerl’s help maybe you’ll see me in this silly dress that has me feeling like a mermaid. Ooh~! I don’t care how pretty it looks, everyone is complimenting it and not me! It’s not even my style!~

“It really is pretty!” Cream breathed a wow sometime later after Vanilla had managed to contact Tails who with Gemerl’s eyes acting as a projector had a number of photos on a wall in the Rabbit family home.

Just like it had been described in Amy’s letter, a girl in a purple mermaid style dress which had its top obscured by a veil adorned the wall several times over. The stary night appearance of the bottom of her dress which flared out from just after a slit began in the dress was shared by the flats that she wore on her feet as well as the underside of the purple witch’s hat that appeared to be attacking the photographer in many of the pictures. In a few of those the purple flat cap atop the girl’s head that the veil was attached to along with a decorative gold chain and two large purple gems hanging from it like earrings was visible. But any defining features were absent save the Ring-shaped locks about her. One per foot, another dangling from the tip of the hat joined by a tiny one on the hatband, the one on her chest and two floating in the air at her sides where her arms would have once dangled. Tails wasn’t sure if he should feel sick to his stomach seeing his good friend like this or just relieved that she seemed okay regardless of her situation. Gemerl, lacking the emotional context of the horror of the scene stated its final conclusion flatly.

“Ninety-seven percent probability of being Amy Rose,” the android stated and made Tails jump.

“What? Really? How can you be sure? There isn’t anything we can use to identify her!”

“Incorrect,” Gemerl, stated. “Despite the matching appearance to her veil and dress, her tights are not opaque based on the difference in lighting per photograph.”

“Of course!” Tails exclaimed and busily set to work on his Miles Electric table. “If you account for material stretch and filter out the color range… There! You get the exact shade of pink of Amy’s fur!”

“Which can be DNA matched to within acceptable parameters for that shade combined with her height and figure to determine a 97 percent match. However, a margin of error must be accounted for as in addition to her missing appendages, she seems to have lost around an additional 17% of her body weight.”

“That’s horrible!” Cream gasped! “She’s withering away!”

“Actually, I think that’s normal for Amy,” Tails laughed and scratched at the back of head. “She’ll go on unhealthy diets at the drop of a hat and shrivel up in no time. If she has to use magic to sustain herself…”

Tails didn’t finish the thought as the word magic didn’t feel right in his mouth. “I guess I couldn’t really say,” Tails sighed. “I’m more of a tech guy and haven’t encountered magic before like Sonic has.”

“But we can’t get Mr. Sonic involved, Cream insisted. “Amy begged us not to.” Like Tails, Cream was aware of Sonic’s stories of being whisked away to worlds of magic and could not argue that he would be more help than any of them.

“I don’t believe it’s just Mr. Sonic,” Vanilla added, even as she made no attempt to hide the concern in her voice for Amy. She was not the only one who was so offput by Amy’s appearance, but she was the one who also had to speak up as the adult on Amy’s behalf. “She said she wants to refine herself, and everything in that letter implies this terrible curse she’s under is helping her do just that. It’s normal to worry for her but…”

“You’re right," Tails agreed, though he looked away and clenched his fist. “We all agreed we’d spend time doing our own thing and getting our own feet under us. It’s just…”

“But she’s Amy, Tails,“ Vanilla assured the two-tailed fox boy who was Sonic’s frequent companion. “She took the time to write Cream, to assure her that she was fine, so we know that she is.”

“Yeah…,” Tails attempted a smile as he looked at the pictures still projected by Gemerl’s eyes. Not seeing Amy’s smile in kind though was not comforting and he could only wonder where Cream found the faith in her friend to stand so resolute as she too looked at the pictures of who they all believed to be the hedgehog girl.

And they were not wrong.

Sunlight near blinded Amy as the purple witch’s hat suddenly blew off of her face where she had fallen asleep in the back of an open bed truck hauling hay.

‘I guess this is where today’s adventure begins.’ Arching her back to stretch out what muscles she had control over without magic, Amy only lingered in the hay a moment longer. Soon, she was airborne and twirling like an acrobat, or as close an approximation as possible dressed as she was, a number of the fortune cards she kept with her twirling around her. As she descended and landed on her feet, only one did not disappear and continued to swirl around her allowing her to stand at all.

Noticing the hat that was her only company stuck in a tree, Amy sighed through her nose. ‘You really are helpless.’

Disapproving as her thoughts were, Amy’s green eyes were smiling behind her veil. She had left the truck in a rather perilous stretch of a mountain path, and it would take everything she knew of magic and likely more to see herself back to safety.

‘Hee-hee,’ she laughed to herself in her thoughts. ‘I think I’m finally understanding why you’re always looking for ways to challenge yourself Sonic.

‘Just you wait Sonic! When I get out of this mess, there’s no way you’ll recognize me with how much I’ve grown. I just know you’ll regret it!’

Though her tone to herself was confident, Amy still spied a nervous glance at the red thread entwined around her in the air. The end opposite of where it emerged from the magical keyhole on her chest was what she primarily sought, and when she confirmed where it was pointing, she promptly traveled in the opposite direction, a handful of fortune cards appearing in orbit around her to help her levitate along. Her path was not in the service of helping the hat that followed her however and it had to rescue itself to chase after her. Of little surprise to Amy, it was not so sluggish in its self-rescue attempt as to not be able to send the hedgehog girl tumbling into more trouble and her next adventure. One she hoped would steer her clear of Sonic for a while longer. However, there were some events in life that were unavoidable, such as the necessity of an umbrella to stay dry in the rain.

Even in light rain making use of an umbrella was ever advisable. Most people about in the isolated mountain village that Amy found herself in did exactly that as they scurried about under the dampening gray skies. Holding an umbrella in hand was impossible for Amy as she sat on an iron bench. A lack of arms made that task unfavorably difficult.

Despite her purple attire, especially the witch’s hat upon her crown, Amy did not stick out in the least. Her invisibility was of little concern to her at that moment. Her current situation was the result of a curse born from the dress she wore. Rather, the cloak that had fused itself shut to her and did things unknown to her arms and tail. Her mouth fared no better, its position hidden behind where the cloak’s collar had completely obscured her muzzle save her nose. It was completely absent as far as she could tell due to a lack of any feeling or even a sense of tongue to feel around for it. Her lips were as absent, and her voice no longer existed. Communication and even movement were impossible for her under normal circumstances due to the curses affiliated with each of the Keyhole Rings adorning her and it was consuming her thoughts. But not fully.

Despite the curses of the Rings on her feet stealing away her use of her legs, Amy could still at least attempt to move her thighs, torso, and neck. Her situation was not hopeless however, even as that rainy morning’s attempts to move her thighs barely managed a nigh fused rubbing together of her upper legs just due to the tightness with which the cloak had fused to her. Even knowing what she should be doing, she did not give up on her physical abilities.

‘Use a little magic to try and help out on the Starfall Islands and get it into your head that you can learn to really use it,” Amy’s thoughts still took umbrage against her own actions. But her thoughts did not give credit to her desire to refine herself after the events on those untouched islands where a world ending entity once was sealed. But she did not dwell on her dissatisfaction either, instead putting every ounce of effort she could into working what leg muscles she could.

‘C’mon Amy, you may be getting better at using the same tricks you did on Ouranos, but you can’t give up on using your body either. It wouldn’t do me any good to get out of this mess and not be able to use it without magic either. If that happened, I’d be better off just staying like this.’

Her thoughts were born of a frustration that had been plaguing her for longer than she could figure out in that moment. ‘How long has it been anyway? I think I might actually be forgetting what it even felt like to have arms!’

A bit of panic settling in, Amy looked up and watched the villagers going about their morning, putting their hands and arms to any number of uses. Holding umbrellas and bicycle handles, taking hold of groceries and exchanging goods, giving handshakes and hugs. Watching a couple embrace caused a sharp pain to course through Amy’s body that she winced at with her all. Her eyes started to water, and she had to keep from sniffling so as not to compromise her ability to breathe. ‘How long has it been since I talked to anyone, no less shared a hug?’

Trying to imagine reaching out with the arms she once had to hug someone, Amy’s efforts were met with the sudden appearance of the last two of the seven Keyhole Rings that adorned her body. These two floated in the air at her sides where her arms would have been, and for a moment she stared at them in wide-eyed surprise.

‘Did they disappear? When did that happen!’

Her emotions betraying her control of what magic she had managed to learn, one of Amy’s fortune cards answered her distress and appeared from thin air, swirling around her, and causing her to jump to her feet. The motion dislodged the witch’s hat, but Amy hardly cared for that as her sudden jump required her to actively control the spell that summoned the card to keep her hovering just a few centimeters off the ground before her curse disabled feet proved useless and left her to fall. It might have been better at that moment she thought to herself though as her action combined with her unobserved state put her on a crash course with an oblivious passerby. The collision itself would have bothered her, but she could not allow it as the cloak would not either and she saw the first thorn start to grow from it that prevented her from even making physical contact with others.

Not allowing it to happen, Amy summoned another fortune card and threw herself backwards onto the bench. She miscalculated the amount of magic she needed and banged her head loudly on the backrest. Her eyes started to water as her vision blurred and her ears rang, but she still pleaded for the safety of the villager.

‘Just keep walking.’

Amy’s thoughts naturally went unheard, but the banging of her skull was an entirely different matter and the hapless passerby stopped to see what the sound was. They saw nothing, however, as Amy focused on keeping herself invisible, a spell that came to her strangely naturally. It also meant that they did not see the lethally long thorns that had grown from the cloak, more continuing to stretch out as Amy struggled to wriggle down the bench and away from the villager. Yet, she could see, even as far down as the flaring end of the cloak, more thorns stretching out of the fabric towards the threat to her isolation. Before anything terrible could happen though, with a shrug the villager continued walking and Amy sighed heavily through her nose as she watched the thorns recede back into the rest of the cloak, making their appearance seem as unlikely as the sun in the night sky.

‘That was too close.’

Sitting back up, Amy sighed again as the witch’s hat suddenly plopped itself back upon her head. Amy paid it hardly any heed though as she leaned back, even as it slid down and into her eyes. She had no control over it, and as far as she could tell it was hapless beyond its ability to always find its way back onto her head.

‘It’s not like I can just let you go either,’ Amy directed her thoughts towards the hat. ‘Two of the Keyhole Rings are on you and if I don’t get them unlocked, I won’t break all of the curses. Though, I wonder if you’re what stole my mouth or the Ring on my chest.’

Looking down at her chest, Amy’s attention did not linger on the Keyhole Ring for long. Instead, it was the red thread that emerged from it that took hold of attention. ‘The red thread of fate…’

While there were many meanings to that phrase, to a hopeless romantic like Amy it meant that on the other end was her destined lover. It was an easy belief to have considering the origin of the end that touched her was above her heart, but she could not see the other end. The string simply faded off, though she had noted that it did surely point somewhere and moved on its own. This simply reinforced her belief though that on the other end was Sonic the Hedgehog, as she had been once told by her fortune cards that the two were destined.

‘It’s only right that Sonic would hold the key to my heart,’ Amy mused and swooned at the idea of being freed by Sonic before shaking her head violently.

‘No, no, no Amy! You can’t go see Sonic like this. You’re anything but more refined. You’re just a mess right now and Sonic getting involved could be disastrous for him. You’re dealing with curses after all you dummy!’

She would have clapped her face between her hands if she still had them, but instead had to deal with her mounting frustration at her helplessness. Her helplessness and worsening loneliness.

‘Maybe I should try writing Cream again,’ Amy contemplated as she absently summoned a fortune card to take her to her feet once more. ‘I don’t know if she can even see the words I cast onto the paper but writing her helps me feel less lonely and I could use the company thinking about her brings.’

Her mind made up on her next course of action, Amy allowed her body to be pulled through the air by the fortune card that orbited her. Hearing a familiar voice though stopped her in her tracks.

“Come on boys!” The rambunctiously loud voice of Vector the Crocodile, head of the Chaotix Detective agency, ordered the ninja dressed purple chameleon and pilot hat wearing bee that accompanied him. “We can’t be getting distracted by the local specialties! We’re in the middle of a job.”

“Say’s the one stopping at every food stall in town,” the chameleon countered.

“Come on, Espio,” Vector attempted to plead and bargain as he shifted the blame. “Charmy’s been wanting to try the sweets and it’s not like I can say no to him.”

“Yeah!” Charmy chipped in excitedly. “The sweets here are really good and you’re missing out!”

“Are we not on a case?” Espio inquired with heavy exasperation.

‘The Chaotix?! Why are they here?!’

Surprised was putting it lightly at how shocked Amy was to see the detectives. They normally took on small jobs that did not see them far from their office in Central City, so appearing in a remote mountain village was anything but expected. It was to a degree that it was alarming, and Amy’s thoughts began to race.

‘They’re not looking for me, right? Would Cream or Vanilla have asked them to? No. Maybe. But I asked not to be helped. I’m supposed to be refining myself, and learning to use magic so I can find the keys to undo these locks will definitely be part of that. But if they find me and interrupt my journey. Well, no, they shouldn’t be able to, I can turn invisible via magic and even Espio shouldn’t be able to find me. But what if they are just passing through? It wouldn’t hurt to say hi, right? Augh! What are you thinking Amy! You don’t have a mouth or any arms to say hi with! And it’s not like they can see it’s you in here! You’d just confuse them if you went up to them like this! And what if they are here because Cream and Vanilla don’t think you can handle this! You’d be throwing in the towel just to say hi when you can’t! That’s one thing I can’t do! I won’t give up just because I want to actually be recognized by someone and not feel so lonely! Even if I’m really, really, lonely!’

The conflict in Amy’s head was revolving and it seemed unlikely that she could make up her mind on her own. Yet, despite the odds she did reach a decision.

‘Ooh~! What can it hurt! You can always just run away if things don’t work out!’

Her mind finally made up, Amy braced herself for anything and nodded her head with fierce determination.

‘Eh?’

As she looked up, Amy paused and took in the scene around her. The rain had long stopped, and the parting clouds revealed that the sun had moved to kiss the horizon on its way to its nightly slumber. There was no sign of the Chaotix, and the villagers were well on their way to preparing for the evening themselves.

‘Wait…,’ Amy weakly pleaded as her stomach rumbled at her, a consequence of the whole day passing and using magic to keep herself upright. ‘That’s not fair…’

Shaken by her indecision paralyzing her for an entire day, Amy tried to reach out to where she had seen Vector, Espio, and Charmy. Again, the Keyhole Rings at her sides appeared, serving as a cruel reminder of the curse that took her arms.

‘Stop it,’ Amy begged, but the Rings simply persisted until she gave up her attempt to reach to where none she knew stood. Then, they disappeared as surely as her arms and the memories of what it actually felt like to have them.

A tear fell to the ground from under Amy’s veil, followed by another and another, but no wailing to free her heart from the barbed wire pain that entangled it. The need to have her heart freed of its pain though gave her pause and Amy watched the red string that swirled in the air around her.

She knew better than to give in to that desire. Seeking Sonic was the worst possible thing she could do. If he saw her like this, it could result in the absolute worst outcome. The thoughts of the Koco whose love story she watched come to an end on the Starfall Islands and set her on her path of self-refinement flooded her mind as their reckless end very well threatened to be a foretelling of her and Sonic’s own if she did not refine herself. Yet the excessive sleep she needed to recover from using her magic, nor the dread of absorbing nutrients from her environment via magic, combined with that knowledge prevented Sonic the Hedgehog from standing across from the cursed mage in a clearing in some distant wood.

“What?” Sonic asked in surprise as the purple clad mage appeared after a flash of lightning. The ominous, almost threatening visage put Sonic on guard as the rain came thundering down.

“Is there something I can do for you?’ Sonic asked warily, rubbing the underside of his nose with his pointer finger as he felt a sneeze coming on that he was certain was warning him of danger rather than his hay fever. Especially in the violent downpour that was turning the ground quickly to mud underfoot.

Naturally, Amy could not respond, she could do nothing more than stare at Sonic as her heart absolutely screamed in anguish, paralyzing her where her orbiting fortune card kept her aloft. In the darkness brought on by the storm Sonic could not help but notice the magically alight card.

“Wait a minute,” Sonic muttered as he noticed the design on the back of the card and recognized it almost immediately.

The familiarity of the card drew Sonic to check for other familiar features. There was not much facing the nearly fully covered mage before him, but in the downpour the witch’s hat upon their crown had its brim forced down revealing the pink-furred hedgehog ears that escaped through the holes in its sides. Those ears in combination with the fortune card all but assured Sonic who was standing before him, but before he could seek clarification, he noted the red string that was pointing directly at his left pinky finger and that the mage before him had no arms. Faced with this additional information, the tone of his question changed dramatically.

“Amy?”

As her name left his lips, the curse on the veil that hid Amy’s eyes from the world failed before Sonic. Her distraught green eyes became readily visible to him, the force of the rain no longer being enough to obscure how violently she was trembling from head to toe. Only the tears that drenched her face were hidden still by the rain.

“Amy!” Sonic repeated and took a firm step forward. “What happened!”

In the next moment, too many things happened. Knowing what the cloak would do to Sonic if he approached her terrified Amy and she attempted to retreat from Sonic’s sudden approach. But her heart completely betrayed her and the reality of Sonic reaching out for her was enough to break even her absent-minded concentration and her fortune card vanished leaving her to fall backwards into the mud. Her loss of balance was all Sonic needed to forget the danger his nose was warning him about and he dashed forward to catch Amy, his world-famous sound surpassing speed leaving a boom that reverberated with the thunder. Amy could only look on in abject horror as she knew in the mud there would be no way for Sonic to stop himself from being pierced by the inevitable thorn that would greet him. Not wanting to see her own terror reflected in Sonic’s shocked eyes, she squeezed hers fast.

‘How could I?’ Amy accused herself, her heart feeling like it was being pulled in countless directions unable to resist the horror she befell upon the one she loved with every fiber of her being. ‘I knew this would happen if I kept acting without thinking! I’M SO SORRY SONIC!!’

She knew her apology would never reach Sonic, trapped inside her head as it was, and that he would never reach her. Yet, as she splashed down in the mud, she did not feel the impact or the weight from Sonic’s direction that she expected. Hearing his voice though, Amy forced her eyes open as she turned away so as not to see what she feared awaited her.

“Amy?” Sonic asked with surprise, the sword like purple thorn with the stary night at its tip just coming up short of his throat, seeking him from Amy’s chest. Amy could not fathom how Sonic had stopped, the sneeze that marked the peak of his danger sense going off and accomplishing the impossible going unheard over the rain and thunder. The confusion in Sonic’s emerald eyes though only deepening the regret, self-loathing, and fear in hers.

“Maybe instead of trying to impale me you could try telling me what this is all about?”

‘This isn’t what I wanted… this isn’t what was supposed to happen…!’

The story being told by Amy’s eyes failed to make anything clearer, instead muddying further the bizarreness of the situation for Sonic. “What is going through that head of yours Amy? Say something!”

The one demand she could not fulfill no matter how badly she wanted to. The growing concern and anger in Sonic’s eyes. The thought of him discovering her helplessness. The fact that she almost ended his life. That her heart betrayed her. It was suddenly far more than Amy could handle and a storm of fortune cards exploded around her launching her backwards and away from Sonic. Not waiting for Sonic to reorient himself and have the chance to stop her retreat, Amy dropped to the ground and another torrent of fortune cards appeared as she launched herself even higher into the air, twirling like an acrobat as she held her body straight as a pike. She refused to risk landing again and at least two dozen more fortune cards swirled into being around her, forming two rotating rings that kept her airborne and moving away from Sonic.

“Hey! You’re not getting away that easily without telling me what’s going on!”

Hearing Sonic yell angrily at her was like being hit by a towering ocean wave and being knocked out of her own body. The terror of what that could possibly mean erased any possibility of rational thought in consideration of Sonic’s actions. Seeing him ricocheting off tree branches to catch up to her only deepened her fear.

‘No! He’ll catch up in no time like this! Think Amy! There has to be a way to go fast enough to at least give you a chance to get away!’

Though too panicked to think rationally about Sonic’s reaction, Amy’s mind desperate from adrenaline and a need to travel as fast or faster than Sonic pulled her mind back to the Starfall Islands. It was where her journey to master her magic began, and in the need to go as quickly as possible to help Sonic she had developed another way to use her cards for movement.

Ceasing to use her magic to keep herself upright, Amy switched to relying on the strength she had in her torso as she summoned her Piko Piko Hammer and landed on it sidesaddle style. She did not ride the hammer to the ground though, her fortune cards raced to swirl like a wheel around her and her hammer rather than a ring orbiting her waist. The pause in the moment it took to align everything nearly gave Sonic a chance to risk the thorns once again emerging from the cloak, but then Amy was propelled forward in sound shattering burst of speed. Sonic could not begin his pursuit immediately as he first had to land and find his footing in the mud. Fortunately, the light given off by Amy’s cards pointed him in the right direction and he flew as fast as he could across the muddy ground. It was too slick though to match Amy’s magical retreat in speed and Sonic took to leaping from tree trunk to tree trunk with much greater success. To terrifying success from Amy’s perspective as her impromptu magical vehicle lacked any descent control and she was wildly drifting around trees as Sonic rapidly closed in on her. If not for the sudden cliff it would have been impossible for Amy to have gotten away.

“No~!” Sonic started to yell as he overshot Amy as she relinquished her magical chariot and started to fall. Twisting in the air to catch where she would land, Sonic was unprepared as the night sky suddenly blocked his vision. “Gah!”

It hardly took even an instant for Sonic to wrestle the witch’s hat free from his face and toss it away, but there was no sign of Amy as he scanned the forest below him. Looking back toward the hat out of desperation, Sonic was shocked to see that it too had already vanished. Shocked as he was though, he still took the time to focus on landing safely. But even from ground level there was no sign of Amy or the hat, Amy’s magic allowing for a trackless retreat.

Sonic was upset about his failure to catch Amy for several reasons, his pride as the world’s fastest hedgehog letting another hedgehog get away from him in a race among them. More important than his pride though, was his confusion and concern for Amy. In a last desperate bid to get her to explain, he screamed out her name into the storm.

He did not expect that months would pass, and that Amy of all people would become just another part of his life not to look back on. But he could not stop living his life for one regret. He could only move forward, no matter how much it hurt to have failed to have done anything. It was thus a shock when the Rabbit family contacted him desperate for his help. It was even more shocking when they were the ones who had the answers behind Amy’s actions on that stormy night so long ago now.

“That–,” Sonic began to make a remark about Amy as he pinched his brow with the hand of the same arm of which the elbow propped him up at the Rabbit family table, but a warning look from Vanilla kept his words clean, “–dummy.”

Even as clean as he kept his language, Sonic’s anger was apparent to Vanilla’s young daughter, and Cream fidgeted nervously as she risked asking the bristly hedgehog a question.

“Is it that bad Mr. Sonic?”

“Probably worse,” Sonic sighed as he glared at the collection of blank sheets of paper Cream held. They were letters written in magic that only the rabbit who was Amy’s best friend could read. To all others they were just blank sheets of paper, but this was not Sonic’s first time dealing with magic. Having faced the cursed, novice mage, Sonic could clearly sense Amy’s magic on the paper. He was angry with himself for having not figured it out that night and clicked his tongue.

“Even worse than how Amy describes the curses she has?” Cream asked, visibly shaken from the fresh imagery Amy’s writing invoked and Sonic’s anger. Sonic noticed how upset Cream was getting and offered her a smile.

“She definitely wasn’t doing good like you. Great job making it through those scary letters for me!”

“Of course!” Cream beamed at Sonic’s praise and the thumbs-up he flashed her. Vanilla was not leaning in the direction of agreement to praising Cream for nearly traumatizing herself reading the contents of the letters that Amy had been sending and how they described her experience with the curses placed upon her. Noticing the mother rabbit’s expression, Sonic pushed the discussion forward. He wanted to anyway as learning what he did since the Rabbit family asked him for help when the letters stopped coming for months made him want to once again find the pink hedgehog girl he used to not be able to shake.

“The problem is that Amy thinking these curses can help her get better at magic is too naïve. Speaking from personal experience, being cursed isn’t fun, and they only get worse the longer they hang around. I wouldn’t be in anywhere near as great of shape if not for a good friend who helped me back then.”

“Can this friend of yours help Amy, in light of you finding her first?” Vanilla asked hoping to remind Sonic why she had called him there.

“Probably,” Sonic answered Vanilla as he began scratching inside his ear with his pinky finger. He felt bad knowing he was going to have to extinguish the light that appeared in Cream’s eyes at the hope for her best friend, but he still pulled his finger free of his ear and blew on it. “Unfortunately, I can’t just get in touch with her. Amy is probably going to try to keep avoiding me too. She probably can’t shake the image of that one Koco couple she tried to help back on the Starfall Islands. She already compared one of them to herself, and she’s probably plugged me into the role of the other. She doesn’t want us to go through the same thing and wants to refine herself to do it. It’s too much for her though. These curses aren’t just hiding her from the world, they’re cutting off everything she is all so she can focus on learning magic. Even being Amy and her being able to accomplish those things only she can…”

“Then you’ll find her and help her, right Mr. Sonic!” Cream shouted, desperate to hear good news about Amy. Sonic smiled to her again and placed a hand on her head as he stood up.

“You bet,” Sonic offered a reassuring thumbs up yet again. “Amy owes me a race too, so I have to find her and prove her getting away was a stroke of pure luck.”

Pure luck was going to be something that Sonic needed if he were even to get a lead. Since his encounter no one had even seen the purple clad mage. The idea that on that night she had retreated from one polar hemisphere to the other to get away from him was unfathomable. That the amount of magic she used to accomplish the hours upon hours long feat on top of having escaped from him in the first place left her in a state of hibernation since would have been even more shocking. Yet, to Amy who had not realized how far she had traveled and how long she had slept, the season seemed the same and as far as she could tell she had simply slept a night and not for months. The absolute absence of life in the forest below the mountain cave she exited left her feeling extremely guilty.

‘I guess I was hungry, and nothing would stay where it was to become fuel for a mage.’ Summoning her trusty hammer, Amy sat on the head and began her morning routine of rubbing her thighs together. The task was performed in absent-minded habit as her thoughts were elsewhere.

‘I really messed up,’ Amy thought as she sighed, though the long sleep had left her emotions far less volatile. ‘I bet Sonic thinks I hate him after that.’

Looking at the red string that still twirled around her, Amy was not so sure. “Well, at least we still share a destiny even if he does. I wonder if an apology will be enough to at least make Sonic forget about me instead of hating me.’

Tears fell from Amy’s eyes, and she tilted her head back so they would not become like raindrops upon the cloak that bound her. The gray sky above threatened to accomplish that outcome if she failed regardless, and Amy’s brow furrowed as though she were smiling wryly.

‘Meanie,’ she thought to herself before turning her attention back to herself. ‘Well, I have to apologize no matter what. Sonic deserves to know what happened, even if that’s the end of our destiny. Even if it means he’ll never be the key to my heart so I can get free. It’s not like I remember my arms or voice anymore anyway. I doubt even unlocking the Keyhole Rings where my arms would be would bring them back. Where would they even go? They’d be crushed and that’d be worse than not having them.’

She wanted to laugh and cry both at the idea, but without her mouth or voice, she could only shed more tears as the first raindrops began to fall. Not wanting just to cry, Amy shifted her thoughts and looked down at the Keyhole Rings on her feet.

“I wonder, if that’s the case, then would undoing any of these restore any of my control over my body… It doesn’t make sense that it would. Wouldn’t it make more sense that instead I’d be able to use spells that require exerting more of my magic against my body? Like wouldn’t all of that movement last night have been easier if my ability to move, using my feet, wasn’t restricted. In other words, I need to get stronger too.’

Testing herself, Amy chose her right foot and began to try and force her magic into the Keyhole Ring. It easily resisted her attempts, seeming to grow more resistant the more magic she threw at it. She should have been forced to withdraw, but the hedgehog girl was stubborn, and Amy pushed herself to the point of exhaustion. As her magic waned, it became small enough to slip inside the Keyhole Ring.

‘EH~!’

Surprised and exhausted as she was, Amy did not want to waste the opportunity and traced around inside the keyhole attempting to fill its shape with her magic. It was like exploring a puzzle laden dungeon and Amy concentrated fiercely to see the complex structure filled. And then, to her surprise Amy accomplished it and had the shape of the key that would unlock the Keyhole Ring. But the magic was wrong, and it would not turn.

‘Phooey,’ Amy huffed as her efforts seemed to be for naught. Yet she still had the key shape and let it float up before her eyes. ‘Well, it’s the right shape, so maybe I can use it to find the actual key. If it’s a different type of magic but the same shape I just have to pick it out from the rest of the magic that fills the world. Hmm… I think I’ve passed a few places where magic seems to pool from all sorts of different sources. If I take this there maybe I can find the matching shape and trace it back from there.

‘Look at that Amy! You have a plan for the first time since you got turned into this. Right, then being able to apologize to Sonic should no longer be just a silly desire. I’ll just work my way up through each lock since I’ll need to be able to comprehend moving through space that disappears to unlock the ones at my sides. With those undone maybe I’ll have the magical dexterity to hold this silly hat down so I can trace its Keyhole Rings too! But I need to make sure I stay focused first and don’t let my heart steer me off course without thinking about it first.’

A fortune card answering her summons and letting Amy stand up as her hammer vanished, the cursed mage floated over to a nearby Ring spinning on its axis in the air.

‘Perfect!’

Having an idea of what she wanted to do thanks to tracing out the shape of the right foot Keyhole Ring, Amy grabbed the Ring with her magic and flooded the space it occupied, tracing out a complex enclosure until suddenly the Ring disappeared only to reappear closing itself into the same space as the Keyhole Ring on her chest and becoming one itself. It did not cut off the red string, which was exactly what Amy wanted, and a golden key with a Keyhole Ring as its tab floated in the air before her.

‘There! With that I won’t be able to just act on my emotions without getting paralyzed. I’ll have to think it through and come up with the right spell to free myself. And it’ll have to be rooted in an actual plan that won’t let me chase after Sonic until I’ve conquered the other six locks.

‘…

‘It’s kind of useless if I just have the key though.’

For once proving it actually had some reasonable use, the witch’s hat upon Amy’s head leapt off and gulped up the key, erasing all trace of it. Amy could easily sense it within the hat, but that did not stop the incredulous look that took over her face.

‘NO WAY!! All this time you’ve been nothing but useless and now you do something helpful! Just wait until I unlock your Keyhole Rings! Then you’ll answer to me, and I’ll get all of the head magic you’re likely locking up too!

‘Wait! What about the letters I’ve been writing to Cream? Don’t tell me the magic I’ve been using isn’t actually strong enough for her to read them! If this is your fault!

‘Oh~, never mind,’ Amy exhaled sharply through her nose as she calmed herself down. ‘It’s not like I’m ever getting out of this, so I’ll just apologize to Cream when I can find a way to talk to her without a mouth. Until then, since you seem to be able to hear me, that means you get to be my friend.’

Ducking under the floating hat, Amy straightened up and forced it back onto her head. With a nod she looked off towards the horizon as the rain began to pick up.

‘No complaints either, you got it. We’re stuck with each other because there is no way Sonic will let me use him to unlock the last lock after that awful meeting. So, no more complaints about my mouth and arms from me either. I’m already used to being without them, I just have to find a way to be happy like this too.

‘Maybe after I finally apologize to Sonic, I’ll take up traveling magic research and learn everything I can about magic. Traveling just to get better at using it is fun enough, so why not?’

Thinking about the future well beyond her current point, and even her next destined meeting with Sonic, Amy set off on the next leg of her adventure to undo the Keyhole Rings and free herself, planning to replace them with her own so as to even make her cursed form her own under her own power. It was a hopeful dream full of impossible optimism. But that was Amy Rose, and she never gave up on impossible dreams. As long as she did not hurt anyone that was. Hence why she was able to ignore the twitching of the far end of what she could see of the red string around her as it traced Sonic’s search for her, all the while, the rain coming to an end and the sun coming out.

Yet such adventures were boring and lonely themselves, and Amy’s loneliness had already compromised others already. As she had stopped writing Cream, finding ways to stem off her loneliness grew more important, and she found herself experimenting with magic while letting her playful nature keep her from being too dour about it.

~Hark ye who have stumbled upon this tomb and know that you have exposed yourself to the personal account of the life of Sorcerer Lock, the Mage of Cards…

~Pft–~ I’m sorry, that’s too much. It’s not wrong, but not entirely right, I’m going to start over.

~If you’re reading this, you are indeed reading the open diary of Lock the Mage. Except Lock isn’t really my name. It’s what people have started calling me though as my reputation has spread, and it naturally has to do with the seven Keyhole Rings that adorn or otherwise float around me. The whole Mage of Cards bit comes about because I use my fortune cards as a conduit for my magic. The thing is though, right now I’m no sorcerer or anything so grand. I’m just a cursed novice who wanted to get better at magic to help refine myself, and well, here I am on a grand adventure to do just that and lift the curses on me.

~I haven’t figured out what all of the curses are, but I have determined the best order to go about it.

~On each of my stary night slipper clad feet with matching tights are one Keyhole Ring each. The curses on these pretty much keep me from using my legs from my knees down. Undoing those Keyhole Rings, I believe will allow me to access more diverse movement magic than what I can manage with my fortune cards alone. Should I undo both I’m hoping to be able to traverse locations that aren’t technically there. That sounds weird, so let me move on to…

~The large Keyhole Rings floating at my sides about as far out as my wrists would be if I still had arms. I’ll get to that, but without the ability to travel places that aren’t there, I can’t project my magic in to map out the keyholes and track down the magic that shares the same shape. When I do though, the hope is to be able to have access to magic that is at least as good as having hands again, or way better. I’ll need it too if I’m going to deal with the next two.

~On my head are two more Keyhole Rings. Despite wearing a flat cap with a veil that no one but me can see through and big earring placed purple gems, both Keyhole Rings on my head are actually on a witch’s hat that normally sits up there too. The problem is that it’s alive and moves about freely. Without being able to hold it down I can’t map out either of those either. When I do, I’m sure I’ll be able to control it and put an end to the curses from it. I’m sure it’s messing with my head and also secretly sharing magic knowledge with me to help me along, but the first part is a problem. I can’t trust myself to go see my friends, even though all of this doesn’t mean anything if I don’t solve it myself. I can’t talk to them either and can’t be sure if even this diary will ever be readable by anyone thanks to it. But I’m so lonely not being able to have anyone see me in this get up that I’m writing it anyway and if you’re reading it, know you’re as much my companion as this awful hat! And I enjoy fortune telling, so I have no doubt someone will read this someday!

~Ahem. Moving on, the other reason I need control of the hat isn’t just for access to proper communication knowledge, but to also get back the key for the Keyhole Ring I made and cursed myself with. You see, the last Keyhole Ring of the curse from the purple cloak with the stary night pattern at its end and fused itself to me as the world’s tightest mouth and arm stealing mermaid dress doesn’t have a normal key. It rests on my chest and the red string of fate trails out of it and around me. On the other end is none other than who I love with every fiber of my being. Sonic the Hedgehog. He’s the last key, but without lifting the other curses, seeing him didn’t end well. I don’t have real person to person communication magic, I don’t have my mouth, and I don’t have any arms. All I could do was float there staring helplessly at him until he almost got himself impaled on the thorns that grow out of the cloak if anyone tries to reach out for me or gets too close. That meeting was a disaster, and I’m sure after successfully running away that the only fate left between Sonic and me has nothing to do with us being destined lovers anymore. I don’t even think we are anymore after that meeting. But before letting Sonic catch up with me or seeking him out again, I’m going to become the best mage I can and make these curses my own. Afterall, if Sonic and I are no longer destined lovers, then he can’t be the key to my heart to finally undo the last lock. I’m stuck in this armless, mouthless, cloak sealed form forever. But I have to at least apologize to Sonic before dedicating the rest of my life to becoming a great mage worthy of the name Sorcerer Lock, the Mage of Cards.

~Oh, that reminds me. It’s part of why I’m writing this. It’s not just to stave off the suffocating loneliness, but so I don’t forget. Like I said at the beginning, Lock isn’t my actual name. But all anyone sees is this get up which is so not my style. They don’t see me in it, and since my ability to communicate is pretty much gone, it’s what people have started calling me. But if you’re reading this then please, don’t call me Lock. My name is Amy Rose, so please call me Amy. I don’t want to forget my name too. I’ve already forgotten what it feels like to talk or to use my also stolen voice. I don’t even remember what it’s like having a mouth even though my face is full under the collar of the cloak like I should still have one. It’s not like my arms which I’ve also totally forgotten how to use or what it was like having any. It’s frightening that I have too because the Keyhole Rings at my side only show up if I’m using my cards when they used to always be there before just showing up when I tried to imagine using my arms. Imagining using arms isn’t the same and they don’t respond. I’m honestly scared even using my cards won’t be enough one day, so I need to get them mapped before they disappear forever. It’s not like I can give up on them like my memories of walking and using my legs. Without them I can never undo the Keyhole Rings on the hat and that means that the curse I put on me to keep me from pursuing Sonic can’t be undone either. I wouldn’t be able to apologize then and the rest of my life would be weighed down by that one regret. I can’t do that!

~Anyway, that’s where this record of my travels begins. And you’ll be joining me today as I arrive at a rather cute village isolated here in the mountains.

~Why am I here? Because even though I’ve learned that magic exists all throughout nature, spells were crafted by people, so that means curses too. I have to find a place where magic and spells pool so I can hopefully find a magic match to the shape of the one Keyhole I have mapped out. And with that, let’s go~♥~

Depending on the mountain range, one can find idyllic valleys even in the heart of seemingly perpetual blizzards. It was such a forested location that Amy found herself descending into, her brow furrowing as she noticed a tunnel allowing vehicular traffic into the hamlet hidden in the cozy hidden forest. She did not stay frustrated for long however as vehicular traffic meant modern amenities and she gleefully allowed herself to levitate into town. The sight of a ninety-centimeter-tall armless figure in a purple mermaid dress and witch’s hat with a fortune card orbiting about them floating into town easily attracted attention and it was soon known that the mage had arrived in the small community. It hardly mattered to Amy however, at least until she chose a local coffee shop to delight herself in.

“The Mage of Cards? Here?” A lady waiting in line for service at the counter asked, prompting Amy to turn invisible.

“That’s what I heard,” another lady replied. “Lock was seen here of all places. I can only imagine the trouble she’ll bring.”

~If you’re feeling bad about the response to me, it’s fine. It happens all the time. I mean, for as beautiful as this outfit looks, no one can see who’s wearing it so it’s natural to be suspicious. That, and it’s no mystery that Sonic is looking for me. I’m not sure why since it’s been months since that fateful night. Maybe Cream asked him to since I haven’t seen her since before I set out on my little trip of self-refinement. I had been writing her, but when it occurred to me that the curses on the hat probably made my letters unreadable, I stopped. Sending her blank pieces of paper because I can’t use a pen and she can’t read magic inscribed letters just seems silly. Did those envelops I dropped off even go anywhere? Either way, Sonic is looking for me, and people know. Because he isn’t sharing why beyond unfinished business in the few interview clips I’ve seen, people think I’m his enemy. It’s heartbreaking enough anytime I see him on TV or hear his voice, but thinking I might be someone Sonic sees as an enemy now…

~No! I can’t feel sorry for myself. I just need to stay focused on these curses. That and cheering myself up a little.~

The idea of trouble being brought was said in a broad sense by the lady and she was ill prepared for Amy to suddenly appear out of thin air as she looked back at the other lady she was speaking with. If Amy had her voice still, she would have laughed at the look of shocked horror on the woman’s face. Her amusement quickly turned to guilt however when both women started profusely apologizing to her. She could hardly do anything in response and did not know peace until she ordered an herbal tea by pointing at the menu with another summoned fortune care and sat outside to wait for it.

~You’re probably wondering how I’m going to eat without a mouth, and I can assure not with my nose. I’m going to use magic to extract what I need from it to keep myself going. Eating this way is one of the first things I had to learn when I was first cursed. I honestly thought I was going to die if I didn’t figure it out, and I can take from anything I want really. I like herbal tea though as herbs are very rich in magic and helps keep my magic from draining out too fast. If I use too much, I get so sleepy. I can actually sleep for months at a time it turns out if I’m not careful. When that happens, I can’t really stop myself from absorbing from everything around me just to stay alive. Which is kind of a dreadful state to be in because it means even if I wanted to waste away after what I did to Sonic my magic wouldn’t let me. It feels like an extra curse on top of all the rest. I can’t even give it away; I’ve tried but the dumb hat has stopped me. I’m trying to be friends with it, but it’s always causing me so much trouble. I swear it’s doing it on purpose. But I think an example would better help demonstrate what I mean.~

After extracting everything she could from the herbal tea and causing it to dissipate into nothing, Amy set about town in search of a demonstration of her intentions. Her search was for more than a demonstration however and she kept her magic senses on high as she drifted about town ducking into and out of alleys. Her efforts paid off eventually as she found the back door of a bakery where the quickly staling early morning, short-lived goods were being disposed of.

“Get out of there you wretch!” the employee disposing of the wasted foodstuffs yelled at a man in tattered rags who was waist deep in the trash bin in the alley. It put him in perfect position to be kicked in the side and sent rolling with the trash can. “Don’t make me call the cops!”

~It’s awful seeing how people will hurt each other when they can help each other. Maybe those baked goods are stale now, they sure smell it, but this poor man is hungry and hasn’t given up on life yet. That it’s more important to that person to throw out food that could help someone then helping them out makes me want to scream some sense into them. All I can do as I am right now though is try to help.~

From where she had again cast her invisibility spell on herself, Amy looked down the alley to where the beggar was skulking away as the bakery employee scowled after them while being sure to put a lock on the trash.

~Disgraceful.~

Her mind made up, Amy reached into herself and took hold of her own life force before turning her eyes back in the vagrant’s direction. Exactly as she expected, the hat that normally adorned her head was floating in front of her to block her line of sight to the man.

~And this is what always happens when I try. This silly hat proves itself helpful and won’t let me hurt myself, not even to help someone else. But there are other ways I can help as I’ve learned. Those baked goods may be under lock and key until the trash collectors come for them, but a simple thing like that can’t stop my magic. I’ll just extract all of the nutrients from every bit of food in there and pass it on to this poor man. I’d like to do more, but…~

Though her eyes were downcast, they still smiled as Amy successfully circumvented the hat and managed to get the vagrant a full meal.

~Sorry you didn’t get to enjoy the taste; I know just how you feel. But with a full belly you should be able to find the strength to try and improve things for yourself. Best of luck!~

The demonstration for whoever might read the open diary she magically inscribed into every reasonable surface she passed while traveling over, Amy resumed her search of town for whatever else there was she had traveled there for through the frozen mountains beyond. But she soon tired and took a seat on a bench to allow her own magic to recharge. She couldn’t help but feel that the cloak that bound her did the same as she caught a slender thorn grow from it to impale a mosquito that dared drift too near. She sighed heavily through her nose at her powerlessness, her earlier act of kindness doing little to help her feel assured of her growth as a mage. Another test soon presented itself though as an explosion rocked the edge of the town.

~What was that!~

Not realizing she was still recording her open diary, Amy summoned up several of her fortune cards, the cards pulling her back to a standing levitation. As they settled into orbit around her, she rushed off after the explosion as people either stood stunned or fled. The tendency of some people to scream in their panic however told Amy immediately what she was getting into.

“It���s Eggman! Run for your lives!”

~Eggman? Here? No, it’s probably just a stray robot. He wouldn’t bother with a place like this unless it had something that he wanted. As much as he torments gods too, I’m sure he has no way to interact with magic.~

Rounding a corner and letting her cards disperse so she could slow down, Amy set about determining what she was up against. While not the nefarious Doctor Eggman himself, what appeared was too much trouble for a town far enough removed from most to not have any Wispon users or even Wisps present to help. Waving an oversized drill of a right hand while tossing bombs with a left hand that seemed to create giant bombs that exploded into a rain of smaller bombs, the lumbering Eggman shaped mech stared down the edge of town with a glowing smile.

~Is that based on an Egg Hammer?~

The robot Amy compared the one she faced to was towering machine that shared a similar heavily armored build but typically carried a two-handed hammer. In her own days of wielding a toy hammer as her weapon of choice, she could boast about having beaten many of them at their own hammer swinging game. With no arms to swing her hammer and next to no control of her body physically, such feats were beyond the novice mage. Yet that did not seem to matter.

Not noticing Amy’s arrival, the Egg Driller opened up its left palm and presented a new bomb for the terrified townsfolk. Tossing it up into the air, it smiled brightly as the bomb exploded into a shiny set of smaller bombs ready to rain down destruction and chaos. Such did not happen however as Amy glided across the ground and positioned herself between the town and the machine, most of the fortune cards that had been orbiting her finding their way skyward and decimating the rain of bombs. That action alone earned the mage the full attention of the robot that she glared down as she sent more fortune cards to push and drag people to safety. Her efforts seemed futile however as the crowd shifted from panic to curiosity at the sight of an unexpected hero. Amy had no time to worry however as she had to focus on moving herself as the Egg Driller lunged at her with its namesake right arm. Summoning more of her fortune cards to get her moving, Amy deftly dodged the attack, but was forced to make a spiraling shield of cards to catch the follow up backhand. As the robot jumped away it launched several missiles from its backpack unit which spiraled wildly after Amy. The rocket powered speed of the missiles forced Amy to retreat rather than destroy them allowing several to crash into the ground and send debris flying with. Not risking more destruction, she took a short hop and slammed down into the ground, her cards catching her. Exploding outward away from her, the recoil sent her spiraling like a pike well into the air. This provided the room necessary for further missiles to curve up after her only to get sliced in half by a magic imbued fortune card each.

Needing to keep the Egg Driller’s attention away from the ground, Amy cast forth enough fortune cards to form two orbiting rings around her and slowing her descent to a crawl. As she slowly descended, she matched eyes with the towering robot and the next exchange began.

Dropping to a knee, the Egg Driller fired off another salvo of missiles at Amy as it summoned another giant bomb to hand. Rolling the bomb to take up where Amy could next stomp down, it set its arm to use and bored once again into the ground. This left Amy with no target and a need to dodge a spiraling salvo of explosive projectiles, a situation which became an opportunity to dance. Letting her orbiting cards pull her about through the air, Amy summoned several more to intercept the missiles while making sure to also cut the fuse of the giant bomb below her. Trapped within the greater bomb, the smaller ones within still went off and Amy braced herself for her opponent to send it flying into the air after her as it was transformed into a rather volatile spiked ball.

Ready as Amy was, it was no surprise when the deformed bomb at last jetted into the air for her, the damage on the underside allowing the internal explosions to escape and fuel it like a rocket. Amy did not back down however and cast out two fortune cards spinning like a saw blade of growing diameter to split the bomb in half. Cut as it was, the internal explosions blasted the two halves harmlessly into the mountains that surrounded the town. It was an impressive and flashy display that nearly blinded Amy to her opponent’s spectacular achievement of reaching her elevation. It was not an achievement managed by the Egg Driller under its own power though.

~EH~~~~~!!!!! Why is a guardian statue here! And why is it so big!~

The Egg Driller became a thing of all of no interest to Amy as it was crushed mercilessly in the mouth of a stone dragon, it’s drill falling to the ground below, the explosions from its remaining bombs and missiles seeming to have all of no effect on the stone beast.

~Eh-hehehehe… Right! Let’s make this a lesson about guardian statues and magic beasts. Since I’ve been looking for places where magic pools and hopefully where spells pool as well, I’ve fought quite a few. Most magical beasts aren’t too bad as I can just overpower them with an assault of magic, but guardian statues are a very different problem.~

Donning a steely look in her eyes, Amy summoned even more cards and sent them out to strike the dragon statue that closed in on her. Unlike with the bombs she had been attacking before, her cards did not even scratch the dragon, instead seeming to find resistance against an unseen barrier. Her attack proving useless, Amy was fully exposed to the jaws of the statue as they clamped down fast on her.

~The problem with guardian statues, you see, is they have magic resistance, and my magic isn’t powerful enough to penetrate it. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to beat them.~

Despite the difference in magic power between Amy’s offensive casting and the defenses of her new opponent, the magic Amy used to place cards stopping every tooth of the statue proved sufficient to keep her from becoming its second meal. Summoning more cards, she retreated backwards out of its mouth and summoned the rest of her cards back to her to increase her speed, but the statue was not caught off guard by the fierce shutting of its jaws and turned over catching Amy full on in a powerful tail whip. The blow sent the purple clad hedgehog careening into the ground and through the forest with enough force to cause a massive dust cloud to billow up. The townsfolk could only watch in terror as the stone beast roared triumphantly, afraid they would be next. But they possessed no magic and did not interest the beast. Instead, it was magic activity in the forest that drew the beast’s attention. Descending in hot pursuit of Amy, the guardian statue only did not crash into the ground by spreading its wings at the last possible second. The motion seemed to have saved it as several fortune cards flew under it, clearly missing their mark. Not spotting Amy, the dragon landed to better see through the trees, uprooting several with its weight and revealing that the floor of the forest had become a pit of dust. Immediately the massive statue sank, the friction between stone and dust preventing even its powerful wingbeats from lifting it. What it did achieve however was a parting of the trees to reveal the purple clad Mage of Cards staring it down with green glowing eyes as her fortune cards danced mercilessly through the ground deepening the pit of dust.

~You see, even with magic there are physical limitations that have to be considered. I’ve taken worse hits from Knuckles when playing around, so I’m fine after a hit like that, mostly, but this thing is too heavy to get back out and once I pull my cards out of the ground, it’ll set instantly trapping it in the ground.~

The roar that erupted from the guardian statue was not one of defeat, and it opened its mouth wide to reveal a growing light between its jaws. Amy held her ground without fear however as she was prepared, a fact the statue came to realize as the Egg Driller’s drill filled the space above its head. It tried to twist out of the way, but the drill was brought down hard, a storm of fortune cards spiraling around it to increase its speed well beyond the limits of the robot that once wielded it.

~The tricky part with guardian statues is that their magical defenses allow them to shrug off most non magical attacks, and most magical attacks don’t work either. So, the best solution is to combine the two and overload its defenses.~

Spiraling around the drill as Amy’s fortune cards were, they served as a forward drill to meet the magic resistance of the dragon. As they peeled away the drill lowered and lowered until card and drill both bore relentlessly against the beast. All the while, Amy watched on with cold, glowing eyes as the beast released another roar. This one would prove to be its last as the stone of its head cracked and splintered for only a moment before the drill shattered it into a cloud of dust, the rest of its body following suit and leaving Amy standing alone in the forest. She was not left alone for long and was soon joined by a cheering crowd of villagers whose lives she saved from two unexpected threats that day.

~I wouldn’t say this is how my adventures have been going normally. I mean, I don’t usually have people telling me how cool I am after a fight, or how intimidating and frightening I look when staring down an opponent. I mean, I guess I do look cool. and considering my figure is really shown off by this get up I bet I look a lot more mature than I feel. Being called scary though kind of hurts. I try so hard to be cute, but it really is impossible like this. I bet Rouge could pull this off way better than me. Maybe I’ll ask her for some pointers when I finally get that far along. For now, though, I need to check out the magic ruins the guardian was protecting and see if I can’t find any clues or helpful knowledge. It’d be nice to find another mage, but I feel like if there are any this cloak is a sure sign to avoid me. Who knows though, maybe when I find the first key that will change. I hope you’ll be excited when you find my next diary entry. It’s been fun talking, but for now, I need to do secret stuff. If you’re a mage too, you’ll have to do your own research. Best of luck~♥~

“I’m not a mage, and the research I have to do is figuring out where you went next,” Sonic sighed as he sat on the edge of the ruin revealing chasm that the guardian statue had emerged from. “How did you not pass out after that when just running from me had you out for months?”

“Lock left no notes on that did she?” an old man asked Sonic as he walked up with his hands clasped behind his back. He eyed the ring on Sonic’s left ring finger, oblivious to it being constructed by burning the letters sent to Cream and having the ashes sealed within the metal. He was further without knowledge of how wearing it where he did allowed Sonic to see the end of the red string that swirled around Lock tied around his left pinky. All the old man knew was that the Ring allowed Sonic to read Lock’s notes since he traveled around the small hamlet touching it to various places where the Mage of Cards had passed through.

“I’d appreciate a hint at least,” Sonic admitted his ignorance to Amy simply absorbing the released magic of her opponent to keep herself going.

“Ho, ho, ho,” the old man laughed. “When Lock arrived, we feared her you know. Your search for her and her never waiting to meet you or speaking for herself and all. But after she saved us, we realized she must have had a good reason to avoid you. Whatever it may be, we all agreed not to betray her kindness and help you should you come through. I hope you can forgive us our kindness.”

“Nothing to be done about it,” Sonic shrugged as he stood up and dusted himself off. “If she wants to lead me on an adventure, I’ll enjoy it until she slips up and I finally catch her. She can’t outrun me forever, I’m Sonic the Hedgehog after all.”

“Ho, ho, ho! Best of luck then. I just hope your unfinished business isn’t to bring her any harm.”

“Heh,” Sonic smirked. “Trust me, I’d never hurt her by choice. Even reading about her fears about her hat I can't believe she's managed to convince herself that I hate her.”

Sonic's last sentence went unheard as he was gone in a blink before saying it, speeding off hoping to stumble upon another of Amy’s diaries. As he ran, he spied a quick glance to his left hand. Whether he was checking the red string tied around his pinky and tracing into empty air and Amy at some distance or contemplating the placement of the ring he crafted with Tails aid to help him on his quest could not be said. Regardless, he allowed himself a smirk and accelerated further. The next chapter of Lock’s journal was out there somewhere waiting to be read and to take him one step closer to the errant hedgehog girl who used to chase him. The adventure was far from over for either of them.

The worsening loneliness of Lock only assured that most of the mage’s journal entries were frivolous more than they were helpful. They covered anything and everything from how she used magic to stay clean and felt like the laundry when wet to remarking on the influence of magic and spells on wildlife and geography. Not all of them were without value, and it was one that would lead more into her collecting of fortune cards that proved most valuable.

“Really, I can hardly thank you enough Lock,” a local trader clapped his hands together as his goods carrying pickup truck did not share the same fate as the scattered remnants of Eggman’s robots on the rocky mountain road he traversed. “Are you sure this is really all you want? It’s a trivial trinket I picked up because I liked the art. It doesn’t hold any value and if you just took on regular bodyguard work like this you could surely earn a fortune.

“No?” the trader asked as Lock shook her head. Looking back over his shoulder he could see a town down the road and smiled disappointedly. “Well, I can make it the rest of way myself, so I suppose it’s only fair I give this to you now.

“Take care Lock! May your journeys prove more lucrative than this one!”

~I feel so bad not being able to tell him how valuable this little trinket actually is.

~Oh, right! It’s Lock again! What’s that? Wasn’t I using another name? Hee-hee… About that, it’s kind of embarrassing. I started writing this diary so I wouldn’t forget and to stave off my loneliness, but well, I went and forgot anyway. So, if you know my actual name, please use it. I’m sure it’s better than Lock.

~Anyway, on more important matters, I finally have a lead to the first key! Some context will help though. Um, as much as I like learning about magic, I have to take my mind off of it from time to time so I can clear my head to think better. So, I’ve taken to collecting fortune cards during my travels. Not just any fortune cards as I already have a full deck, but False Arcana.

~False Arcana are kind of hard to explain, but in short, they are fortune cards that are not part of any of the existing suits. They don’t actually belong and are thus false. As a practitioner of cartomancy beyond the use of just fortune cards, I can mix them into my deck and make readings based on their inherent meanings. Adding them to my deck has also expanded my magical ability so collecting them is especially helpful. And no worries about the backs not matching my deck, as binding them to my magic by making Keyhole Rings and conquering the dungeons my mind explores when doing so fully changes them to match. It’s the Meaningless False Arcana that are much more troublesome after all.

~Unlike regular False Arcana, Meaningless False Arcana don’t even have inherent meaning of their own. They’re literally just art pieces in the fashion of fortune cards. They’re effectively useless, but some are weird and I can sense magic in them. Well, spells more accurately. And that’s what brings us back to how much this person I escorted helped me out. I probably wouldn’t have even met him, but the little trinket he had was a Meaningless False Arcana that I can sense a spell from that matches the key shape I traced out for the Keyhole Ring on my left foot! Hold on a moment while I try to bind it to my magic!

­~…

~…

~… AUGH~~~~!!!!! I can’t do it! The dungeon doesn’t make any sense!~

Perhaps to the mercy of the future reader of Lock’s diary, she stopped writing as her frustration reached a head and she glared at the card she had acquired. The art it held was that of a town in some verdant land and the name of the card was simply “Valsoth.”

With a heavy sigh through her nose, Lock gave up on the card for the moment and turned her attention away from it. ‘Wait a minute… NO WAY!!’

Lock’s excitement could only be contained by her voiceless, mouthlessness as her senses detected the same magic on the card in the air. Looking around with fevered excitement as at last she found a lead to one of the Keyhole Rings of the curses and cloak that bound her, Lock summoned fortune card after fortune card absentmindedly to allow her to jump in joy as she found a hidden path deeper into the rocky mountains she currently traveled. As she calmed herself down, she took several of them and let them swirl around her until they forced her into a ball form, and she rolled down through the hidden path. It hardly seemed a sight worth noting, a hedgehog curling into a ball, but the sight of the witch’s hat that accompanied her bouncing along atop Lock’s curled form was a difficult to ignore curiosity.

~Asides from collecting cards and growing my magic, I’ve also been working on what physical abilities of mine I can. With Sonic the Hedgehog of all people chasing me, I need to be able to. As he uses his ability to curl into a ball to manipulate his speed and attack, I’ve been training to do the same. I’m definitely better at using magic to attack, but traveling by rolling and steering with my magic is faster and less magic consuming than levitating. It feels humiliating though like this so I try not to do it where people can see me. I also have to be careful when I stumble upon magic beasts.

~Like magic guardians, magic beasts are typically resistant to most physical attacks. While rolling is a good way to get away from them, it’s better to fight and eradicate them. While magic beasts are living things, most of the time, they aren’t natural and simply bring destruction to everything if left alone. I worry sometimes that being able to get rid of them has made me less sensitive to the value of life, even if destroying them is to protect life that isn’t only destructive. ‘Oh! What’s that!’

Distracted as she was by the magic beasts that lined the path she followed through the mountains as well as her Rolling Spin Attack training, Lock had not been paying attention to where she had been going. Several stone bridges had passed under her and many a matching staircase had brought her to a shallow stretch of river. Across from the bank where she levitated a sheer cliff was draped in many waterfalls, a megalithic structure carving a chasm into it.

Even if Lock had not sensed the trail of the spell for the key to the Keyhole Ring on her right foot, her curiosity would have drawn her to levitate across the water. The structure was simple, but the rocks were carved into tiers of stone creating a layered effect creating defined depth. It was as though she was floating into a columned entryway where no columns had been carved at all.

‘W~O~W!!’

The towering chasm did at last come to an end however, marked by a staircase leading up into a narrow slit in the artificial cavern wall. Making it her destination, Lock was surprised when she came across rich tapestries hanging in decoration and a stone wall that split apart as automatic doors.

“Oh?” A voice spoke from the side in what could best described as a lobby made in a megalithic structure. Turning to see who spoke, Lock laid her eyes on an aged star-nosed mole in star patterned robes. “It’s been some time since a guest arrived following a spell. I suppose it is only natural for you, a Student of Curses, however.

‘EH~!! Is this a magic school?’

“Seeing the look on your face and sensing the curses that instruct you in the ways of magic, I suppose it’s best I explain. But not here.”

Coming out from behind the stone desk he sat at, the star-nosed mole led Lock to a hidden stone door in a side wall, blatantly far removed from the wall opposite where she arrived and likely leading to the main structure. Though she looked back curiously at what lay beyond that wall, she could not ignore that she had just met someone who understood her situation, and likely far better than she herself did. Putting aside her curiosity, she followed the mole beyond the door and into the torchlit darkness beyond. As the stone door closed behind them, and they began to descend a staircase with several landings likely also holding hidden doors, the mole began his exposition.

“Forgive my presumptions, but based on your appearance and the Keyhole Rings on your person, I am not wrong in believing that you are Lock, the Mage of Cards?”

Lock was confused for a moment by the mole’s phrasing, and he moved to clarify the intent of his inquiry. “You are Lock, the Mage of Cards, correct?”

Clearly understanding, Lock nodded her confirmation of her identity.

“Ah, then it is good that I led you this way and not into the main library. You have many destinies yet tied to you young mage. It would have been detrimental to those who yet rely on you if I had inadvertently brought an end to your instructors.”

‘What?’ Lock asked, though unheard, as she came to a stop.

“Are you surprised Lock?” the mole asked without turning back to look. “This is a library built by mages for mages. To protect its contents and those who would study within its walls, a degree of anti-magic zones had to be put in place. Had you walked through one, the curses that instruct you would have come undone, and you would have been freed from them. You would, however, have reached your limits as a mage. To discard your teachers so would have been to abandon your training. We would have welcomed you to study here and perhaps you could have exceeded your limits in time, but to present that path to you without your consent would have been wrong.”

‘What part of lifting curses requires consent?’ Lock asked herself as she chased after the mole as he resumed his descent. ‘I mean, I know I’ve already turned down help already, so maybe, I guess I would have been upset. But it definitely didn’t have anything to do with getting stronger.’

Stumped by her own feelings on the curses binding her, Lock offered no further resistance as the mole led her to a small room with a few empty shelves on the wall opposite the door and a seat to the left of the entry.

“Your confusion is obvious young mage, as it should be. Your relationship with your teachers is not solely with them. There are your goals and those relationships you had before you began your journey, no less your perception of your place in the world. To be free of your teachers is not a choice you can make so casually. As such, feel free to use this chamber to think about why you have chosen this path and what your goals are. If you can come to the conclusion that you would be willing to discard your teachers, Student of Curses, then I shall allow you access to the library. You will need some time though; I have no doubt of such and will leave you to your thoughts.”

As Lock fell into the available seat in the room, the mole left, and the door again became part of a solid stone wall. Lock only stared at it for a moment before turning to her own thoughts and adorning the chamber in the writings of her diary.

~I suppose now is as good of time as any to review what I’m doing and why. It’s not actually easy to though. Most of my memories from before I was transformed by this cloak are behind a fog in my head. I’m sure that has to do with one of the curses on the living witch’s hat accompanying me, but those memories are still there. I just can’t grasp them or make out the details. It’s not like with my true name that I’ve completely forgotten, or the sensation of having arms, a tail, mouth, or even a voice that are all alien to me now. I can’t even be sure that the voice I think with is anything at all like the voice I had before my transformation. It’s been so long and combined with the curses trying to remember or even imagine it is a waste of time and energy. With the curses lifted though, it’d all come back, right?~

The hat that nested on Lock’s head took the opportunity provided to it to jump off of the mage’s head and to look at it with a faceless gaze.

~Actually, abandoning this path now would be kind of selfish. Though it’s likely given life by the curses I wear, this hat is my only friend right now. I betrayed myself to my emotions and destroyed any semblance of a relationship I had with Sonic, though the red string of fate still binds us. But he’s the only person I can clearly see from before I was cursed. I mean, it helps that I see him all the time on the TV, but even his companion, who I know is a friend I can only remember when I see him on the TV. And my other friends? I can’t see my memories of them at all past the fog. Their names and faces are all out of my reach. But I know I asked them not to help. Overcoming these curses has been part of my journey to refine myself, to grow beyond the immature girl I was who would lead Sonic and myself to the same fate as the Koco on the Starfall islands. And I nearly let the thorns this cloak grows end Sonic. To abandon all of that now and just give up would be like throwing it all in the face of my friends. I can’t do that. It’s not like me to give up either.

~It’s not like I’ve learned nothing on this journey either. I’ve definitely grown a lot stronger with magic than I’ve ever been without it. Fighting and traveling are both so effortless, even if tiring if I’m not careful. I can sustain myself without food and even feed the hungry if I’m delicate with the right spells. I’ve grown my fortune deck and figured out that the curses being conquered won’t free me but will rather grant me magic beyond what I can currently master myself. I’ve even learned how to make my own Keyhole Rings to bind magic and spells to my will. Lastly, I managed to map out the shape of the key for at least one of the Keyhole Rings binding me. It’s just figuring out this card that possesses magic that matches the key’s shape.~

Summoning the glowing key of magic she had crafted by mapping out the “dungeon” of the Keyhole Ring on her right foot, Lock stared at it for a moment before turning her attention to the Meaningless False Arcana that bore the picture of some distant town seemingly named Valsoth. It didn’t feel right, and she couldn’t quite pin down why.

~If I’m right, unlocking one curse on my feet should open up an avenue to travel in ways that I currently can’t. I’m not sure what those could be as I can already levitate, roll, ride my hammer like a broomstick, and practically fly if I expend enough of my magical strength. The risk of exhausting myself and passing out is really high if I do for too long, but it’s not like I’m wanting for ways to move.

~So, what about this card? It’s a Meaningless False Arcana, but it definitely possesses the purified spell of one of the curses on my feet. If I can figure that out, then surely, I wouldn’t have a reason to give up here and admit defeat. It’s not that giving up isn’t necessarily the more appropriate choice under the right circumstances, but I feel like if I just think about it a little longer, I can figure it out and push myself that extra bit to continue and grow into the refined version of me who can solve her own problems and not be a risk to Sonic. That almost seems silly itself though since I’m certain that after I apologize for everything we’ll part never to meet again.~

…

…

…

~NO! I can’t think like that right now because otherwise there isn’t any point to doing anything. Why give up if giving up doesn’t mean anything? At least if I push forward, I can learn and grow, maybe even help people I otherwise never could. Isn’t that what the mole was saying too? That there are still people who need my help as mage, and not the girl I was before becoming Lock? But if they’re as unreachable as the town on this card…~

Again, Lock stared at the card looking for an answer, but it offered none, not even a hint.

~As it is right now, they’re all as unreachable as the town on this card. It’s obviously where I need to go, but how do I get there if I don’t know where it is?

~Wait! Is that it?~

Summoning a card to pull her to her normal levitating, Lock scanned the chamber she had been sealed in and spotted clumps of gray grass growing through cracks in the ground. Floating over, she eyed them for a moment before attacking them with more of her cards. Cutting grass seemed like a waste of magic, but what she sought appeared as the grass easily gave, Rings scattering with their removal. Isolating one with her cards, Lock held the Valsoth card up beyond it.

~Meaningless False Arcana don’t normally have any meaning. But in its upright position this card is illustrating where I need to go. That would mean in reverse…~

Once again casting her magic through a Ring to bind the card to her magic, Lock inverted the card and changed its meaning, opening up an ethereal landscape in the form of one of the mental dungeons she had been facing as she bound other cards. Unlike when last she did, the dungeon was now coherent and the name on the card changed from Valsoth to South Vale. At his desk far above, the star-nosed mole smiled and praised Lock. “She is truly magnificent. Be it her pride or her curiosity, her attraction to unraveling the mysteries of magic is a boon too long lost from this world. Go forth than Student of Curses, face the destiny on the path before you.”

~…In reverse, the meaning of the card is where I am, and the magic of the curse is to travel where I am not. It’s not teleportation either, but literally traversing where I’m not. It’ll take a lot of magic to sustain the spell though, and I’ll be vastly weaker while maintaining it. I’ll practically be back to where I started when I was first learning. But, if I can learn spells in the land beyond this card, I’ll grow easily as I’m not ignorant now. First though… first, I conquer this card and begin making the magic of the curse my own. And I won’t fail. Not this time. Why? Because…­

In the land beyond the card, join Lock as she ventures across South Vale, meeting the people and learning their tale of isolation as she seeks the key to the first Keyhole Ring binding her. Help her assist in the people’s preparation for the coming of the King of Camelot, foretold to follow the arrival of the land’s first visitor in generations. Challenge the magic beasts that have been plaguing the land and their master, the Waker of Beasts who seeks to wake magic beasts not just from the land, but the people. Master the magic of the cards, save the land, prepare for the king, and prevent the Waker of Beasts from knowing victory and bringing catastrophe to South Vale. The fate of the land lies in the hands of a mage with none. But hope is not lost for…

…

…

…

“So, where is she?” Sonic asked as he lowered his left hand away from the wall in the chamber Lock had occupied. “It’s obviously not here either.”

“Please your majesty, I understand your impatience, but Lock is only now coming into her own. To understand her magic before she herself has is an impossibility. All I can do is collect the record of her journey as written by herself.”

Sonic eyed the star-nosed mole suspiciously as he watched him weave his hands and draw the words of Lock’s diary from all over the world into volume after volume filling the shelves of the chamber. As the mole finished, he again turned his attention to Sonic.

“I must thank you as well your majesty,” the mole began. “If not for your contributions, gathering her account of her adventure would be impossible. That said, when the time comes that she overcomes her curses, surpassing her instructors, and becoming a scholar rather than a student, might it be too much to ask that you leave that ring you wear in our care? It is after all, an artifact born of Lock’s magic and legacy. It is only right that it be kept in a library dedicated to the preservation of the history of magic.”

“It means that much to you?” Sonic asked as he held up his left hand to gaze at the simple gold ring upon his left ring finger. Rubbing it with the fingers of his right hand, he spied the red string tied to his left pinky that he could not see without the ring knowing that Lock was on the unseen other end. “I’ll keep it in mind. But don’t expect a concrete answer until I know she’s safe and free of the nasty collection of curses that she’s running around wearing like a bad fashion choice.”

“Of course, your majesty,” the mole eagerly nodded. “I only ask that you consider it. We would never think to force the hand of a king here.” “Yeah, two more things,” Sonic sighed and rested his right hand on his hip as his left dangled at his side. “Enough with the majesty nonsense. The name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. And her name is…

To be continued [?] in an Alundra meets Sonic 3D: Flickies Island inspired action RPG that will likely never be made

Prologue of the Adventures of Lock ~ FIN

-----

Fair Use Disclaimer Sonic The Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. This consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and IP research which can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”. Sonic The Hedgehog Copyright© 1990-2023 SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS

[robo-milky]

SSR Birthday Bloom! Cloche

[CLOCHE’ BIRTHDAY BASH EVENT! CLOSED]

Summon:

"Have I actually been grinning to myself the whole time? …Fine, it’s my birthday…”

[Voicelines Below]

Groovy: [Locked]

Summon Line: You’d think that at least one person from a group of 6 would have some sense of composition, but I’m happy nonetheless. It’s too bad that this broom stays on the ground.

Home: I must look like a mage now.

Home Idle 1: No orders, no pestering, it’s a nice change of pace for once.

Home Idle 2: So many birthday cards… I don’t want to put that much effort into fitting them into a single spread, but I also don’t want to waste more pages too.

Home Idle 3: A letter addressed to me from “Noble Bell College”? That’s odd, I don’t recall having acquaintances in other arcane institutions aside from Royal Sword…

Home Idle Login: Sure, Ramshackle dorm looks a little livelier now, but who exactly do they think is going clean up after all the streamers— I can sit back…? Well, I hope you can meet my standards of clean.

Home Idle Groovy: [Locked]

Home Tap 1: Master Vil gave me a DVD of the Fairest Queen’s animation. Want to watch it together, some time?

Home Tap 2: Laser pointers, feathers, and freeze dried chicken bits… What unique gifts from Master Idia.

Home Tap 3: I thought Master Epel would be one of the first to wish me a happy birthday, but he’s been glaring at me from afar all day. I wonder if I did something to upset him.

Home Tap 4: Master Rook said he’d give me anything as a present, so I asked for hug and pat on the head, hehe~

Home Tap 5: I’m grateful for the wishes from everyone, but it’s a little overwhelming. I’ll head out for a bit; I don’t mind you coming along.

Home Tap Groovy: [Locked]

[imissa3en]

Twst x Fe3h (Fire emblem 3 houses)

I've been playing fe3h a lot since graduation so i figured i'd be fun to make something like this, i don't actually have the dlc so i hope the dlc class assignments i did seemed somewhat correct

General ideas:

1st years would usually be in beginner classes

2nd years in intermediate classes

3rd years in advanced classes

Instead of 3 houses we have 2 schools (3 if we add noble bell but honestly i'm leaning towards only 2)

Instead of the white heron cup the vdc decides who gets to be in the dancer class (which i guess could mean we can have up to 7 dancers??)

Good at flying a broomstick = Good at wyvern/ pegasus riding(?)

I'm planning on ignoring the fact that some classes are genderlocked because i think that locking certain classes behind gender is stupid

Despite the fact that everyone in twst is capable of magic i will be ignoring it because it would be boring if everyone was a mage/warlock/gremory

(Ideas and explanation for class choices under the cut)

Riddle:

I know i said 2nd years get put in intermediate classes but i feel like riddle should be an exception

The only thing stopping him from getting his master class is his his level not being high enough for the certification exams

I'm leaning towards dark knight instead of gremory (he's good riding so why not?)

I feel like his stat growth would be similar to lysithea's

He'd probably have the highest magic growth (His dorm card has the highest attack stat right?)

I think he'd have warp as a spell list?

He'd probably be good at reason, faith and riding

Bad at axes and heavy armor

Trey

A healer and i take no criticism on this

His dorm card is really good defense card with high heals so i think it fits

I think he'd be a less squishy healer (higher defense growth?)

His strength probably wouldn't be bad so maybe he'd excell even if he wasn't a healer

I'm thinking he'd be good at axes and faith

Personal ability would be similar to mercedes (??)

Cater:

Unlike with trey i do take criticism on this because i'm not sure what to class him as

I ended up going with wyvern rider since riddle has a line that says cater's good at flying

I wanna put him as a falcon knight but unfortunately it's a master class and i'd prefer to save that for a timeskip

I feel like he'd be good at lances idk

Maybe his doubles can all be deployed in battle with different classes??

I feel like he might end up being op?

Ace:

Myrmidon but i feel like he can fit into any beginner class tbh

When he gets older he probably becomes a trickster (people who have the dlc please confirm)

Despite both him and deuce being in the same class i figured i'd try to make some differences in their uniform

Decent dancer class candidate (good at swords, no weakness in learning reason or faith, probably decent charm stat)

I feel like he'd be the type to hide in bushes and forests a lot for the high avoidance(?)

Probably has a balanced magic and strength growth

Deuce:

Another myrmidon but with different intermediate class choices

Would probably go into thief or mercenary

Although i think archer is pretty good fit?

Obvious advanced class choice would probably be assassin

Another good dancer candidate (good at swords, high speed stat, budding talent in reason)

Unfortunately i feel like he'd suffer in the charm department but that can probably be fixed with stat boosters and tea parties

After that we can class him as a dancer with the +20 sword avo and he'd be a dodge tank

Alternatively he can be a brawler?? Instead of training him in sword we can go down the brawler path so he can be a war master in end game

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[vermilionsun]

I've seen everyone post their Touchstarved MCs, so I thought why not show you mine as well :)

(Aka, can you tell I'm indecisive?)

Akachi: The Unnamed

“I prefer to count my blessings.”

Pronouns: she/they

Birthday: January 16th — Firstborn; The date the priests took her in

Appearance:

Hair: wavy, mid-thigh length / later shoulder length, white

Skin: very very pale

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 174 cm / 5’7’’

Personality: Benevolent Deceiver — The Sun

Likes: Board games, drinking competitions, children, fairy lights, dressing up, perfumes and nice scents

Dislikes: bad-smelling things, being underestimated, rudeness, being unable to control themselves, the Senobium’s Abess

Fatal Flaw: Can’t seem to break free of their past

Other: 

Thinks of their little group as a found family

Isn’t as hesitant with her hand movements since they grew up unafraid of the curse disguised as a blessing

Isn’t that much into romantic stuff — sure she might fool around a bit with Leander and Kuras but they have made sure they knew beforehand

Have shamelessly commented on Leander’s abs more than once

Loves playing with the children of Lowtown

Considers becoming a teacher someday after getting rid of their curse

She has made living arrangements with Kuras opposed to staying at the Wick (later), but then again, they hang around there more often

Mourns their childhood

Has said “I swear upon my name” when mad multiple times out of habit

Had a mental breakdown once after a very bad encounter and ended up cutting her hair (cutting their hair was forbidden during their days at the temple, and at that moment they felt the need to do something to regain some sense of control over herself), until Aeron found and comforted them before anything worse could happen

Is both super open and very secretive about what they went through in the temple, depends on their mood, honestly

The moment they learned there is an Abess in the Senobium, she immediately got a very bad feeling about the place. They try to excuse it to their past experiences with the cult’s Abbot, but their feelings have never proved her wrong.

Background:

The priests found her in the wastelands surrounding the temple. Some priests argued they were born of the Allmother’s opposing deity, and wanted to sacrifice them in her name, but most were against it and thought of them as a divine gift.

She grew up as a gentle, kind child, but was denied contact with the world outside the temple. That didn’t stop her from periodically escaping to see travelling troupes.

One day, a mage arrived and went berserk the moment she saw them, telling her she had been lied to and revealing the truth of their curse, claiming they raised a child with the same exact curse. The priests escorted her out immediately but it was too late. Akachi escaped that very night.

Arrived in Eridia with the caravan

Relationships:

Kuras — liked

Finds him generally pleasant and amusing, albeit a little scary. If either ever has free time, they take each other on long walks.

Leander — close and disliked

Can see right through Leander’s charm, but plays the whole “how was I supposed to know about how the world works when I was locked away in a remote temple?” innocent card. She knows something's wrong and if they aren't proven right by the end of her stay in Eridia, they swear upon themself she’ll turn back to the temple and curse them out. Truth be told, they find Leander's desperation to get close to her funny.

Vere — close

Has to resist banging their head against the nearest surface whenever he opens his mouth, but finds it very difficult to do so. Hates herself for grinning at his stupid jokes and definitely doesn’t enjoy going shopping with him… or gossiping… or—

Ais — liked

Drinking buddies. With him, Akachi found out she’s practically immune to alcohol. One time she carefully entered the Seaspring, only for Ais to pull them out as soon as he saw her. For some reason, he seems incredibly protective over her after that.

Mhin — liked and disliked

Doesn’t mind them around. Neither seems threatened by the other, there is just this odd dynamic where they can’t figure out what they want from each other

Stats:

Strength — 1

Luck — 3

Wisdom — 3

Empathy — 4

Astuteness — 4

Flower: Snapdragon (Carnation) [True flower — date flower]

Aeron: The Hound

“If I could turn time back, I simply wouldn’t.”

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday: August 19th — Second Born; He chose the date he made his first kill

Appearance:

Hair: wavy, short, dirty blonde/brune

Skin: tan

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 182 cm / 6’0’’

Has a healed scar on his right cheek and a few faded ones on the rest of his body

Personality: Miscellaneous Harbinger — The Moon

Likes: Books, dogs, music, good company, origami, Mhin

Dislikes: Incompetence, loneliness, someone—or even worse he himself—hurting his family

Fatal Flaw: Always believes he takes the best course of action, even if he doesn’t

Other:

Is actively trying to quit smoking

The moment he had money in his hands, he went into the first bookshop he found in Lowtown and bought a book

The best shoulder to cry on & is a cuddly bear

Has earned the title “mother hen” from a few people

He fell for Mhin almost instantly

Stays at the Wick with Arioch

Aeron is the most protective of the three, watching over the other two despite being the middle child

Has become an errand boy and picks up orders for the Wick

Soft spot for that one macabre–themed bakery hidden in a corner of Lowtown

Generally tries to start fresh, avoids committing crimes anymore and hopes he can find a cure at some point

But if needed, he will punch a bitch without hesitation

Always carries a weapon with him, out of habit—usually a handy dagger

Background:

Grew up with a group of orphans in the streets of another city, which they had to eventually abandon due to the increase of Soulless.

Arrived in Eridia with his best friend, who then betrayed and stabbed him, leaving him to die in an alleyway.

Thankfully, that alleyway was the one behind the Wet Wick, and Leander found him quickly.

Relationships:

Kuras — liked

He and Kuras don’t have a particular relationship. They greet each other, maybe engage in small talk once in a while—probably about novels. Aeron’s a frequent visitor to the clinic, either for errands or tending attention to any injuries. Kuras’ also the one who encouraged Aeron to pursue a relationship with his siblings

Leander — close

Good friends. Leander saved him, got him a place to stay for free and even a job right after he was betrayed, effectively saving him from an alternative timeline of chaos and bloodshed that would have gotten him killed. Aeron came to realise that soon enough and promised to repay Leander as soon as he could… except for the drinks; those are, again, on Leander, right?

Vere — liked

Loves this bitch to death, for fuck’s shake. The banter is top tire and so is the unhinged flirting. Of course, they both eye someone else, but practice never hurt anyone, did it?

Ais — liked

The moment Aeron saw Princess, he was on his knees petting her and cooing at her, which immediately put him on Ais’ good side. He doesn’t mind pet sitting this “adorable fluffless ball of sunshine,” as he has called her. Despite all that, Ais is a bad influence for him when it comes to smoking. But, Ais is also his to–go person to help hide a body, if he ever needs it again.

Mhin — liked, developing to close

“Oh damn,” were Aeron’s first words when he saw them. Not quite a romantic at heart until that very moment. Loves to tease them, hoping to get them flustered or at least get pinned to a wall by them again. Mhin seemed to actively try to avoid him at first, then they warmed up, until they pulled away and the cycle repeated itself over and over again. But that’s fine; Aeron doesn’t mind waiting.

Stats:

Strength — 3

Luck — 2

Wisdom — 1

Selflessness — 3

Reading — 4

Flower: Sunflower (Gladiolus) [True flower — date flower]

Arioch: The Alchemist

“Isn’t life too short to be sad?”

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday: June 30th — Third Born; The date their “mother” told them they were born

Appearance:

Hair: none/bald

Skin: dark

Eye colour: Gold

Height: 165 cm / 5’2’’

Is blind in his left eye due to an experiment going wrong. The colour hasn’t changed much, but it looks more faded

Personality: Unforgiven Innocent — The Star

Likes: Dancing, bubbly potions, bad jokes, sweets, journaling, earrings, Kuras

Dislikes: silence, small spaces, lemonade, Vere

Fatal Flaw: They trust way too easily

Other: 

Sees Kuras as a father figure

and also helps him around in the clinic

Gives the best gifts

Has a snack with them at all times

Always perches in a high place whenever possible. Like, they never sit normally. Is that a bird? Is it a plane? Nope! It’s Arioch sitting on a random rooftop!

Has developed abandonment issues

Often suppresses their own emotions and thoughts, maintaining such strict self-control that it occasionally leads to overwhelming impulses to violently destroy something

Once upon a time, they accidentally left their journal unattended and a very sneaky and totally mysterious individual made quick, yet very detailed, sketches of everyone mentioned in there on Arioch’s extra sticky papers

Stays at the Wick with Aeron

Background:

The exiled mage found them abandoned in the wastelands as a baby. She decided to take them in the moment she saw them and raise them as her own

They found out their “mother” was cultivating them as a test subject through some forgotten notebooks. They couldn’t even finish reading before they bailed out of there with what little they had on them that moment.

They literally walked to Eridia, surprisingly without trouble, although they might have noticed some turfs of red hair suddenly appearing here and there as they were getting closer to the city

Ended up stumbling in the Seaspring’s temple

If they had flipped to the last pages, they would have seen her regret and abandonment of her original plans.

The mage was searching for them until the day she died, yet never found them. The closest she got was when she came across Akachi’s cult temple.

Relationships:

Kuras — close

Has grown attached to him. Not in the “I always wanted a father,” sense but in the “you make me feel comfortable enough and you take care of me and we don’t mind me being myself,” kind of sense.

Leander — liked

They find him a little pushy and overdramatic, but other than that they have no reason not to like him yet. It’s nice to let go of those damn bandages for a few moments… or hours—

Vere — disliked

Avoids him if they can. They get an uncanny feeling, like the foxian resides in every shadow they pass. Too much knowledge has hurt them in the past, so they simply don’t want to know whether they’re being hunted down like prey or they're just delusional.

Ais — liked

Definitely wants to see Princess again, but is too afraid to leave the city for now. Ais is all but encouraging them not to visit. They like to joke around with him, though Ais’ violent… solutions are stirring something in them they’d like not to name

Mhin — liked and disliked

They are each other's confront person. They will cuss each other out, then sit at the stairs behind Kuras’ clinic and feed the cats while chewing on sweets. Arioch is Mhin’s first taste of what a family would look like.

Stats:

Strength — 2

Luck — 5

Wisdom — 2

Kindness — 4

Confidence — 3

Flower: Peony (Rose) [True flower — date flower]

Timeline of events:

The triplets Akachi, Aeron and Arioch were born and left in different places (January 14th)

Aeron begins his journey to Eridia with his best friend

Arioch finds out the truth and runs away to Eridia

Akachi finds out the truth via Arioch’s “mother” and runs away to Eridia

Arioch stumbles upon the Seaspring temple

Aeron is betrayed and stabbed & Akachi’s caravan gets attacked

Leander finds Aeron and tends to his wounds, Kuras heals Akachi, Arioch stumbles upon Vere

Arioch gets a room at the Wick and stays there till nighttime

Akachi meets with Leander & then Vere, before heading for the Senobium

Akachi meets with Ais

Aeron wakes up and settles down at the bar, soon meeting with Vere and Ais

Akachi gets attacked again by the Soulless, meets with Mhin and returns to the Wick accompanied by Mhin and Kuras

At the same exact time, Aeron is drinking green booger–shots at the bar (still bandaged up), Arioch descends the stairs and Akachi enters the Wick.

They all just freeze, staring at each other

“Is that a new trend? Foreigners dressing up with bandages, looking all mysterious?” Vere breaks the moment

It takes the three a while to figure out what the actual fuck before Ais casually mentions: “You could be siblings. You kind of look alike. Not to mention…” your curse isn’t said, but heavily implied

Dynamics:

It does take them a little while—especially Aeron—to make a decision on how to move forward.

Arioch knew the moment they made the connection that they didn’t want to lose a potential bond.

As for Akachi… she’s always wanted siblings, so why not give it a shot?

All three just want to protect each other from what they went through

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

So like I know that mages or magicians in Twisted Wonderland need a wand to perform magic, are there any mages or magicians that can perform magic WITHOUT the wand? Also, can the wand used by anyone else other than its original owner? So many question in my head

The game actually has answers to your questions ^^ One is directly stated, and the other can be inferred based on what we know of the canon.

Mages actually don’t need a wand specifically to cast magic. It’s the magestone in the wand that is the important thing. This why you will see the dorm leaders in their Dorm Uniform cards utilizing magical tools to host their magestone (ie staves, grimoire, that little floating skull device, etc). (In other character designs, such as the RSA boys and the NRC staff, you can see what are likely their magestones are embedded in brooches and other accessories.) It’s also why many of the other cards have the boys fighting using other items (pies, fishing tools, pickaxes, etc.). There are also enchanted objects like the Mirror of Darkness, the ghost camera, and enchanted bouquets and ring of severance (use to dispel ghosts), which are magical in of themselves and don’t require magical input from a mage to use.

In Vargas Camp 1 + 2, we are more explicitly told that it is possible to use magic without a magestone as well (I included screenshots below of Rook and Trey confirming this), but that blot would be a concern. This is most likely because the clarity of the magestone helps people gauge much blot has been accumulated. In this way, we can assume magestones facilitate spellcasting and may make it easier and safer, but that doesn’t make it a necessity.

It is likely that the “original owner” of a magestone does not matter whatsoever; any mage would still be able to spellcast with someone else’s magestone, granted that they meet the requirements for whatever spell they want to cast (as we do learn that some spells require formulas, magical stamina, or certain resources/conditions).

This conclusion can, once again, be drawn thanks to the events of Vargas Camp. One of the tasks is for the boys to mine magestones of a certain size; these stones are taken from nature, so there is no inherent “owner” to begin with. Furthermore, we later see the boys utilizing several of these mined magestone chunks (which are smaller than the ones in their magical pens) to combat a shared enemy. This involves many of them using their signature spells/UMs (which, as the names imply, are unique to an individual). There is no case of the magestones “imprinting” on their owners or refusing to work for someone (whether for general spells or for UM) other than the initial holder.

Magestones operate indiscriminately; they’re not like phones locked with their owner’s fingerprint or a password, they’re more like… an everyday household appliance that anyone could use if they know how to operate the device to begin with.

[aristocratic-otter]

Hey y’all! I’m here, despite a shitty flare up of my fibro this week. I appreciate all of your art and writing so much, you have no idea! Thank you to : @emeryhall,  @monbons, @thewholelemon, @cutestkilla, @bookish-bogwitch, @best--dress, @blackberrysummerblog,@rimeswithpurple, @Iamamythologicalcreature, @artsyunderstudy, @theearlgreymage

Here’s one from each of my official WIPs

From Saving Simon Snow: 

 “What did he add?”

She thinks for a bit longer, but then shakes her head. “I don’t remember. We’ll have to ask him.”

“Ask me what?” comes a voice from above our heads. Baz is there, looking sleep tousled and heavy eyed. A knot of longing forms in my stomach and I suddenly want to drag him back into our (our!) bedroom and tumble him back into bed. I restrain myself, because I don’t really understand where Baz and I stand right now, and because Penny’s sitting right next to me. 

From the Heart in the Well

“Simon,” I breathe, “[Redacted] is one of the fae! Fairy kind disappeared centuries ago!”

Now Simon’s smile drops away. “Yeah, well tell him that. At least I know why we’re here now, though. It’s so stupid—you’d think it’d be safe to eat a loaf of bread someone left out on their porch.” 

Now I’m shocked and annoyed. “You mean you ate a fucking fairy offering, Snow? What in Morgana’s name is  wrong with you?

From Snow Fox: enter Premal

“Word has it,” Gareth drawls, as he strolls into camp, “a passel o’ Tory boys is lookin’ to sign up with the Snow Fox. Turning their coats, as it were.”

Penny lifts a skeptical brow from where she is sitting in the corner of my tent. She’s been poring over what we’ve gathered on British movements for the last several hours, and her eye has developed a bit of a twitch. “Says who?” she asks.

“Says Premal Bunce,” Gareth says. “Ran into him at the tavern.” 

From TikTok Dancer: 

.I frown for a moment about the freckles. How does he get enough sun on his arse for freckles? He’s got no visible tan lines…

I shake my head at my woolgathering. He’s probably a devotee of tanning salons, that’s all. Though it’s odd, I think, as I trace an outline of the constellation Leo by connecting some of his many markings. 

From Stars, Flowers, and Children,

He’s not looking at me now that he’s said his piece. His jaw is locked, and his arms are crossed over his strong chest, which is heaving from exertion. He’s staring out over the horizon with a fixed look on his face. Probably pretending I don’t exist. 

And I don’t. I don’t exist to him now. And it’s my own damned fault. 

From Cupid’s Shield:

It’s 12:30 pm on February 14th, and the day has been so unseasonably warm that most of the school has taken their luncheon out to the Great Lawn to picnic in small groups. Penny and I are no exception.

I spent my entire morning in a pleasant glow of happiness, thanks to my mysterious Valentine sender. 

I think, whoever she is, she’s grown more skilled each year, because this morning’s card looked worthy of being displayed in a museum. I couldn’t do more than gape at it, for a long moment. I think I also wanted to delay touching it, because the feelings trapped inside have become more potent as each year has gone by. And it’s started to really bother me that someone in the World of Mages loves me so much and I’ve got no notion of who she is. It feels unfair, unbalanced or something. 

From my COBB project:

Penelope Bunce and Christie McCoy take the second room on the left without comment. That means, since Rhys and I are sharing the first room on the right, that Simon Snow and Baz Pitch are left to share my old room, the second on the right. 

I don’t know if the two men expected to have rooms to themselves, but there’s definitely some odd subtext to their interaction when I offer them the final room with a silly flourish. They don’t laugh at me. They don’t even look at me. Instead, they’re eyeing each other intensely. Snow looks uncertain for the first time, and Pitch looks…if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looks scared. 

What’s there to be scared about in a bedroom?

Baz

And now we’re roommates again. Lovely. 

I’m also itching to start another WIP because I had a super angsty (meaning fun!) idea. But I must be good…if I finish Heart in the Well, I’ll let myself start it. The only teaser I’ll give now is it starts with an (apparent) major character death 😉 . 

Tags and cheers to: @chen-chen-chen-again-chen, @bazzybelle, @dragoneggos, @erzbethluna, @palimpsessed, @frjsti, @fatalfangirl, @letraspal, @martsonmars, @melodysmash, @moments-au-crayon22, @moodandmist, @mostlymaudlin, @onepintobean, @raenestee, @tea-brigade, @upuntil6am, @whogaveyoupermission, @messofthejess, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @krisrix, @shemakesmeforget, @larkral, @confused-bi-queer, @j-nipper-95, @facewithoutheart, @nightimedreamersghost,  @thewholelemon, @youarenevertooold, @nausikaaa, @ileadacharmedlife, @angelsfalling16, @noblecorgi, @alexalexinii,@you-remind-me-of-the-babe,@hushed-chorus, @whatevertheweather, @prettygoododds, @thehoneyedhufflepuff, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @mooncello, @wellbelesbian, @ic3-que3n, @shrekgogurt, @cosmicalart, 

[itsabouttimex2]

Can you write something about platonic yandere with Dilyuk or Almond Cookie?

Yandere Father Almond Cookie

You aren’t happy here. He knows it. You can try to hide it if you’d like, but your father knows you all too well. And there’s no hiding the truth from him.

Nothing has ever been able to hide from him. He unravels secrets and mysteries for a living, snuffing out the truth wherever it hides, no matter how deep it’s been buried. He pulls those truths from the mouths of liars, from the evidence on scene, from his own sharpened intuition.

And your unhappiness is the clearest thing he’s ever seen. The lack of focus in your eyes, your uncoordinated footsteps, the way you’ve been scraping at the dough on your hands while you’re lost in thought.

You’ve been daydreaming again. You always daydream when you start feeling lonely. It seems to be much of what you do these days.

“It isn’t safe enough for you to leave the house. Not yet.”

He never does specify when ‘yet’ is. You don’t think he ever will. Some cynical part of yourself wonders if that far off ‘yet’ will ever come.

It had been one single accident that had landed you on house arrest, through no fault of your own. But it hasn’t mattered whether you had been at fault, not to your father. All that had mattered was that a stray blast of magic; from a mage practicing unlawfully and recklessly, had hit you head on, nearly entirely crumbling the dough of your right arm. You had fallen backwards and hit the ground, jam oozing from the wounds.

Your father had been first on the scene, as usual. A long life of both solving and resolving incidents had left him weary and prepared for most of what the world had to offer him.

Ready for anything but one of his two children lying flat on the ground, dough crumbled and oozing, crying weakly in a curled up ball.

And now, he spends every waking moment acting like it happened just yesterday. Your arm is long healed, tiny white lines across your arm being the only sign of any wound or injury, your jam levels steady and healthy.

Still, he can’t get the image out of his head.

Crying. Bleeding. Broken.

So you have to stay inside, for your own good. If something has happened once, it can happen again. Even though he’s seen to the imprisonment of that careless Cookie that dared harm you, the thought that you might get hurt again sends chills down his dough. You got lucky once. There’s no way to ensure that you’ll get lucky again.

Almond Cookie doesn’t live his life recklessly, and neither will you. No leaving it up to luck, no letting the cards fall where they may, no risking it all on a gamble.

Instead, he’ll keep you locked safely inside, getting to freely roam the house with only Constable Whiskers for company. And though the little black cat does an admirable job of combating your loneliness, he just isn’t a replacement for other Cookies.

Thankfully, this isolation won’t be permanent. His intention truly isn’t to leave you locked up forever, to tend to you until his dough wears out. He will genuinely allow you to leave when he thinks that the world has grow safe enough to accommodate you.

He just doesn’t know when that will be.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Like a lot of longtime characters, Kazuma was first made playable as a 3⭐ in BBDW- though rumors and datamines suggest there were plans for him to appear in Chronophantasma at some point, as Terumi has an unused line addressing him in that game.

See also;

[Gameplay]

From the start, Kazuma was a very interesting character to me. At the start, I assumed the Kazuma in BBDW had never made contact with Terumi- and as the story went on, dropping hints of a Terumi-possessed Trinity, I started to think BBDW Kazuma would never become a host.

But the mechanics of the game would suggest otherwise. At the start of BBDW's run, there was this really interesting mechanic where character's special attacks, such as their Astral Heats, were locked a sort of leveling system. (I thought this was a fun touch, though they removed it later into the game's lifespan.) This meant that you wouldn't be able to see a character's Astral until you'd raised them for a while.

Well, unless you watched their character trailers, which always showcased the Astral Heat at the end!

With the sole exception of Kazuma's. We never got to see Kazuma's Astral in promotional materials, while other starting characters like Trinity and Ciel had theirs shown off during early streams.

Which was incredibly suspicious.

Once you did finally unlock Kazuma's Astral Heat ingame, you'd find it very similar to Hazama's traditional Astrals- he's possessed by Terumi, and begins using his powers. Outside of that Astral, Kazuma was never shown using Ouroboros or any of Terumi's snakey magic.

We also see that familiar green haze in Kazuma's third card art- I wonder if that was also a hint. Speaking of Kazuma's character art!

Kazuma is shown in Ishana- in his final art he's in the library he loved so much. I'm not sure what the building in his initial art is. Could it be the cathedral? A normal school building? The library again? Maybe I need to read Phase Shift again and refresh my memory.

His first outfit is the same outfit he debuted in in Phase Shift 1. It's also the same outfit Rei, the player character, wears- minus the tie, which is different between the two. This may suggest the two are in different grades, but I can theorize about that another time.

Kazuma is famous for another outfit- the hooded version worn by him and Terumi during the Dark War, which you can see Terumi wearing in the background of this image. However, Kazuma never had this costume in BBDW. I wonder if it would have appeared as one of Terumi's three outfits when his Chronophantasma version was added to the game.

Kazuma's later two outfits are very similar to his Ishanan school uniform, though they become more elaborate and fancy. The outfits are completely original to BBDW. They could be reflective of Kazuma's personal taste- he's only familiar with the uniform, it's the only clothing he's ever had, and he's a pretty complacent guy, so he'd likely be drawn to clothing he's already familiar with if he had to shop.

Or, could these outfits be reflective of more Ishanan formal wear? Could they also have a role in Mage Guild culture?

I guess we'll never know!

[happilychee]

HC for Cana: She is a really good gambler. With her card magic, unique upbringing at the guild, and need for drinking money, she's grown pretty adept at understanding how the games are played and the math involved. She especially likes to run betting pools at the guild and lower people's guard by playing dumb and drunk before she robs them blind. If she likes you, she may take you out gambling, give advice on a winning bet, or have you give her a loan and giving back triple from her winnings.

these are golden, anon

gambling with cana

cw: slightly suggestive because. c'mon it's cana.

♡ I can't decide what's funnier: cana being a math genius and card-counting, calculating probability, assessing her opponents... or winning through dumb luck and tomfoolery. for the sake of these headcanons, let's go with the first one (though I think it would be a combination of the two.)

♡ you've just finished a job with the card mage, and the reward was quite hefty. you split it 50/50, and you manage to put most of it in a safe place before cana's nagging gets to you. you're in a bustling seaside town renowned for its casinos. it would be a waste not to try them out! a "missed opportunity." but when have you ever been able to resist indulging cana?

♡ you have no idea what you're doing. your evening outfit is cute and just shy of sexy, while cana's dress leaves little to the imagination. the blinking lights of the various machines, card tables, and roulette wheels has your head spinning. you let cana lead you around until you reach a table of old men who are definitely not looking at your face. before you can take your own seat, cana pulls you into her lap. your face burns when her hand settles on your thigh, squeezing just slightly.

♡ "don't worry about the game, 'kay? just enjoy it. these geezers won't know what hit them." you can barely breathe with the way cana's looking at you, eyes smoldering. her expression is serious and fiery, a look reserved for you, as she whispers into your ear, "can you do that for me, pretty girl?"

♡ you don't get a chance to respond because suddenly cana's laughing wildly, yelling for the dealer to throw her a hand. "we're gonna be rich, baby!" she yells. you look between her and the complicated card game, and the worry in your voice isn't completely unfounded when you say, "but, honey, you don't know how to play blackjack...?"

♡ your comment causes the other players to start laughing. cana gives your waist a slight pinch, mostly for being cheeky. they're really underestimating the two of you now, because this is certainly not a game of blackjack. not that it matters to cana. with alcohol flowing through her veins and your warm form in her lap, she feels on top of the world. the casino didn't stand a chance.

♡ "drinks on me, babe?" cana wiggles her eyebrows at you over the pile of casino chips in her arms. you laugh, your own haul shaking in your arms. you'd doubled, no- tripled what your reward for the job had been, and you were excited to not have to worry about bills for a while. that, and a small shopping spree with the fairy tail girls.

♡ "I feel a bit bad; I barely did anything!" you protested. "nonsense. I'm very lucky, because..." cana rolled her eyes, shoving the casino chips to a distressed looking employee. you ignored him as he filled one, then two, then three bags with fat wads of jewels. "...you're my good luck charm, aren't you?" cana brought her fingers under your chin, locking you in place as she leaned in. "I am?" you could feel her breath on her lips. "yeah, you are, sweet thing, cuz without you I would have lost that entire bet." you don't get to respond, because cana's pressing against your body and pressing bruising kisses to your lips. as you melt into her arms, you think that between the two of you, you're the lucky one.

[kabie-whump]

Magic User Whump - Part 2

Part 1

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

"He's exquisite."

The bandit chief, a hulking man named Vorstag, took Ventis's chin roughly in his hand, tilting his face up. Ventis flinched away from the unexpected touch but Vorstag's grip was unrelenting as he turned his face to make the iridescent crystalline scales embedded in his skin flash in the dim firelight.

"Never seen a genasi with horns before, I reckon," their original captor said proudly. "Boy wasn't easy to grab, either. There's some powerful storm magic in that blood."

"Draconic, I imagine." Vorstag turned to adresses Onthyes and Shayah for the first time since the three of them had been thrown, bound, into the dirt at his feet. "Is that right? Is your little friend here carrying dragon blood?"

Onthyes glared at the chief, not even attempting to speak through the gag in his mouth. Shayah, although she wasn't gagged, stayed silent as well.

Vorstag turned his attention away from them with a shrug at the lack of response. "Can't decide if I'd rather sell him or keep him to myself. The other two will make fine slaves, but this one... You brought me something real special tonight, Mugg."

Their captor, Mugg, grinned with satisfaction.

"Put them away. I'll decide what to do with the mage in the morning."

Minutes later, Onthyes, Shayah, and Ventis were locked in an iron-barred cell deep in the underground tunnels of the bandit's hideout. Onthyes's and Shayah's bindings had been removed and Onthyes's mouth was freed from the gag, but Ventis remained gagged, blindfolded, and tightly bound with chains that pulsed with glowing red runes.

Onthyes and Shayah made quick work of removing Ventis's gag and blindfold.

"You okay?" Onthyes asked softly as he peeled the damp cloth away from his friend's eyes.

Ventis blinked slowly, squinting in the torchlight after being blinded for so many hours.

"I-" the sorcerer's words were cut off with rough coughs. Onthyes wished he'd been allowed to keep his waterskin. "I'm fine."

He clearly wasn't. He was pale and trembling, and his lilac colored eyes were red rimmed from crying. Onthyes could see him biting the inside of his cheek the way he always did when he was trying not to show how much pain he was in.

"Do the chains still hurt?" Shayah asked, moving around behind Ventis to examine them. She cursed in orcish as she answered her own question. "Your wrists are burnt."

"Trust me, it feels worse than it looks," Ventis muttered with a hollow laugh. "My very essence is being siphoned out of me."

"I'll get them off of you. Just hold on, breezy."

Ventis sat still, letting Shayah work behind his back, but she barely managed to pull on the chains before he was stifling cries of pain and twisting away from her.

"That's hurting him!" Onthyes said quickly, reaching out to steady Ventis. The genasi pressed his head to Onthyes's shoudler, hiding his face.

Shayah stopped, holding her hands up in surrender. "I barely touched them."

"Don't bother," Ventis panted. "They must be enchanted. They're not coming off without magic, and I'm fresh out it seems."

Shayah sat back with a huff. Onthyes knew how cagy she got in situations like this, and he was starting to feel the same way.

They settled in, getting as comfortable as they could in the cold cell. Ventis succombed to exhaustion quickly with his head in Onthyes's lap and Onthyes's fingers carding through his hair.

Onthyes and Shayah found it harder to fall asleep, each on high alert. 

“We have to protect him,” Onthyes said into the quiet of the night. “We can’t let them separate us.”

Shayah hummed. “We’re warriors, you and I. We can take this kinda shit. He’s putting on a brave face but I don’t think our little freak of nature can take much more of this. This is pretty far off from the silver spoon he grew up with.”

“He won’t last a second without us.”

Onthyes hated admitting that. He was always telling Ventis how much stronger he has gotten in the past months, how valuable he was to their little party, but the reality was that he was somewhat naive and didn’t necessarily have the strongest tolerance for pain. 

It was just their luck that they would be dragged away from Ventis by morning.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Part 3

[publishinggoblin]

TAKE ME TO THE DARK

Take Me to the Dark: 3 Games of the Strange by Publishing Goblin — Kickstarter

In early October, TAKE ME TO THE DARK: 3 Games of the Strange is coming to Kickstarter! Click the link above to signup and be notified of the campaign's launch!

Take Me to the Dark: 3 Games of the Strange by Publishing Goblin — Kickstarter

Three card-run TTRPGs that take little to no preparation to sit down and play, not even for the person(s) running the story. $25 a piece, or $60 for all three games in a bundle.

ZOETROPE: Death Didn't Take is the second edition of time travel madness! Play time agents trying to stop (or cause) time anomalies in a ridiculous game. Build the timeline on the table with your action cards, so when you rewind (or fast forward) time, you know exactly what did or didn't happen.

SECRET HALLS is 1993 Chicago urban fantasy at its best. You are mages tasked with keeping the peace between other mythological beings, while trying to keep the mortals blissfully unaware of the supernal dream hiding in the dark alleys of their city.

WHAT WE POSSESS is a game of vignettes of the living, paired with the onlooking hunger of the dead. Figure out why your ghosts are haunting this space before their energy fails and they fall to the Whispers that keep them locked here.

[lillotte17]

Inquisitor’s Name: Aili Lavellan

Alternate Name?: (name they have as Companion, if different from Inquisitor name) N/A

Race, Class, & Specialization: Elf, Mage, Knight Enchanter

Varric’s Nickname for them: Dandelion, Dandy

Default Tarot Card: 

"When we see the Page of Wands, we see a youth with enormous excitement and curiosity for the world. He knows what to do, he has the passion to succeed, but due to his inexperience and maybe a little fear of the unknown, his ideas remain abstract. He identifies new worlds to explore, new opportunities he could take advantage of quite easily, and he is even gifted with the "big picture" vision needed to succeed. Even with all of this, he still has the tendency to either remain dormant, or get easily distracted with one idea after the other. If he doesn't learn to control this, it might be that he squanders the opportunities to advance himself."

How they are recruited: Defending refugees in the Hinterlands near ruins she was exploring. (special banter in Elvhen with Solas if he is in the party)

Where they are in Skyhold: Either out in the garden or in the library across from Dorian.

Things they Generally Approve of: Helping elves and mages in particular. Preserving knowledge. Asking questions about her culture.

Things they Generally Disapprove of: Siding with the Templars. Racist elf comments. Needless death. Implying that she should worship the Maker and Andraste.

Mages, Templars, Other?: Mages!

Friends in the Inquisition: Friendly to everyone, but closest with Cole, Varric, Dorian, and Solas.

Romanceable?: She IS romanceable, but her romance takes forever to lock in because she is completely oblivious that you are hitting on her. Demisexual and Bi-romantic. If neither are romanced, she will end up in a romance with Solas.

Small side mission: Collecting Elvhen lore found in various ruins in areas the Inquisition has a presence in- helping to unlock the secrets of the magic used to create the Breach, and sending the knowledge home to her clan!

Companion quest:

Clan Lavellan has used the knowledge you've collected to unlock the location of a temple to the Goddess Andruil, and they offer to send several hunters to assist your party. You arrive to see the temple burning, an open fade rift, and the hunters beset by a varterral. Aili recognizes their leader as Daewyn, her best friend. Option 1: Prioritize saving the artifacts you came for, leaving the hunters to fend for themselves. All of the hunters, including Daewyn will perish. Keeper Deshanna is grieved at the loss of her people, but thanks you for sharing the knowledge you collected. No further contact from the clan is received. Rewards: Really Cool Mage Staff. Note: If your approval is not high enough with her, this option will cause Aili to leave the Inquisition and go back to her clan. Option 2: Prioritize saving the hunters. Most of the artifacts are lost to the flames. Keeper Deshanna regrets the loss, but is grateful for the return of their hunters. Offers to aide Inquisition scouts in the area the clan is currently camping and send whatever supplies they can best spare. Rewards: Moderately Cool Amulet Note: If you are on the Romance path with Aili, you will unlock Special Dialogue with Daewyn after saving him, and he might be a bit of a jealous little shit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Tarot card change:

Option one:

"This card can carry a meaning of dejection, disappointment and sorrow over past events. It can also represent a blindness to good in a given situation. Although the person pictured on the card has lost three cups, two still stand, and he or she fails to appreciate what is left. A river flows under a bridge leading to a safe destination, and yet they focus on their three lost cups."

Option two:

"This card is associated with attained knowledge. The child of life holds a red flag, representing the blood of renewal while a smiling Sun shines down on him, representing accomplishment. The conscious mind prevails over the fears and illusions of the unconscious. Innocence is renewed through discovery, bringing hope for the future."

[astarionsilverbough]

Raphael used to have long, shiny hair.

Oh, but it was beautiful. He coveted it, cared for it. It was almost ritualistic for him, the tending to the soft locks that fell nearly to his ass, just barely covering the dimples carved into his lower back.

It is a sacred thing, his hair.

And then comes the day when Harleep sinks a savage hand into it to yank him into submission - and like everything else Harleep touches, that sanctity is brutally defiled.

After his dear lord husband has taken what he feels he’s owed, Raphael takes a blade to the hair he loved so well as he nurses his wounds in the bath. From then on, he keeps it short. Almost meticulously so.

Until -

“You’ve the most beautiful hair. Have I ever told you that?”

And he doesn’t often allow this - this tenderness after he and Dekarios spend time together. But the warmth that radiates from Dekarios’ golden skin is rendering him weak; it is a weakness he’s beginning to indulge in more and more.

Dangerous. Oh, it’s so very dangerous.

“If you have, I don’t recall it,” Raphael mutters against the front of Dekarios’ throat. He runs an idle hand over Dekarios’ ribs, feeling the way the man breathes and weaving the sound of his heartbeat together with the cadence of those breaths until they’re syncopated.

Dekarios’ fingers sink into Raphael’s thick, soft hair and he goes still on instinct. But this isn’t his lord husband, the beast that keeps him tethered to his father; this is Gale Dekarios, and Gale Dekarios only hurts Raphael if Raphael asks very, very nicely.

So, it doesn’t happen often.

And it doesn’t happen now, as Dekarios cards his nimble, clever fingers through Raphael’s hair in gentle, sweeping strokes. He thumbs over the shell of Raphael’s ear and the cambion shivers. Dekarios hums through a soft smile.

“It’s so soft,” he remarks, sounding bewildered, “how do you get it this soft? What’s the secret?”

“No secret,” Raphael says, heart thundering as Gale gently scratches his scalp with blunt fingertips, “I simply don’t use product or tease it to death every morning.”

“To death!” Dekarios exclaims quietly. “I have lovely locks, thank you very much - they might be a bit… coarser than yours but I think I have quite a nice head of hair.”

Raphael lifts his chin. He doesn’t want to move to look at the mage, lest the man stop what he’s doing. Before he can decide either way, Gale shifts to kiss across Raphael’s cheekbone to his ear.

“Now would be when you could reassure me, tempest,” Dekarios burrs. “ ‘oh, yes - you have gorgeous, lush locks, Gale’. Why thank you, dear, I quite agree!”

Cheeks heating, Raphael snorts. “Your impression of me is abysmal,” he starts, turning his face towards Gale’s, “but I will admit - under duress - that I am fond of your ridiculously teased hair, Dekarios. Even if it is greasy and stiff at the end of the day.”

It’s unkind. Still, Gale smiles against Raphael’s ear. The heat builds between their bodies; Dekarios is shockingly solid for a man of magical persuasion. He rolls Raphael into the messy sheets of his conjured bed with ease, hips finding their way between his thighs as if -

Well.

By magic.

“I know I jest too much,” Dekarios murmurs, one big hand still cradling the back of Raphael’s head, fingers tangled in his hair; “that I cannot argue with,” Raphael says dryly.

“I mean to say,” Dekarios continues, nosing at Raphael’s jaw and cheek, “that I know you enjoy me - the way I look. The way my hair is stiff and greasy at the end of the day. I needn’t coax compliments out of you, it’s unfair of me.”

Raphael wants so badly to hate him. To rail against the tenderness - but he’s too weak. Rendered willingly fangless because he doesn’t know if he could live with himself if he ever bit into Gale Dekarios hard enough to draw blood.

“And if I hated it?”

“You would tell me,” Gale says, stormy eyes commanding Raphael’s focus. “Wouldn’t you.”

It’s not a question.

Gale tips forward; Raphael strains up. The kiss is devastating and slow, tempting him closer to a madness he isn’t sure he wants to escape.

Dekarios keeps a hand fisted in Raphael’s soft hair as he fucks into him again with even, tempered thrusts.

It feels sacred.

It is sacred.

Raphael stops cutting his hair.

[markrosewater]

"Most fight cards are between a creature you control and one you don't control." First, I should qualify my perspective as being from the Bo1 Standard perspective. In the event that it's relevant at all. Could green hypothetically get a fight spell that allowed you to choose between any two creatures? Could that be in-pie? I feel like the big problem with green's creature removal right now is that it suffers from the same blowout potential that Auras do. Not to mention every single other color has 1-2 drops that can be used to manage opposing creature presence while having an empty board. Even blue has bounce spells that can be used the turn their first land hits the table. I feel as though allowing fights between any two target creatures would still tick the box of being creature-reliant, as you would not be able to use the spell on a singular creature on an empty board. And would have to wait for your opponent to play a second creature if you don't have one available yourself. But if your own creatures are immediately burned on entry, you wouldn't be stuck with a dead card in your hand and have to sit there eating hits from the aggro decks until turn four, where _hopefully_ your turn three 4/4 isn't also hit with a Shock or something after being forced to block a 2/2. This also makes the spells usable in midrange and control archetypes. Where the available creatures in your deck are much more sparse. Avoiding the problem of locking you into creature-packed aggro or bust. (And I do recall green is supposed to be the midrange-y color if I'm not mistaken?) Finally, it would still have the self-limiting nature of almost always leaving the biggest creature behind in these instances where you're just making two of your opponent's creatures fight. While also still rewarding you for having your own creature if you swing in. Say it gets blocked and killed by your opponent's biggest creature, and then you make that creature fight one of their other creatures with the damage still on it. Leaving you with a 2-for-2 trade (your creature and your fight spell for two of their creatures) I feel like this would fit green's flavor of "big thing eat small thing" as is the case with nature. It would really feel like tapping into those aspects of wildlife and manipulating predator-prey relationships to your benefit. As I recall, part of green is about accepting your role in nature. But the green mage and/or their creatures 'accepting their role' as prey isn't really conducive to coming out on top. But using green magic to force these roles to fruition amongst _any_ two creatures makes this ideology not an inherent setback. If that's worth anything. Is there any snowball's chance in Rath of this ever happening?

A green mage is supposed to be reliant on their own creatures, not any creature.

[without-school-or-style]

04 - Reticent

Word count: 1,951

Today’s Card: The Puppeteer, Reversed (Explanations, apologies—hinder)

The moment Joey emerged through the shortcut in Halatali, he looked around to gain a sense of his surroundings. He appeared in the basement with impromptu matches already conducted and only a small trail of corpses left. However, when he reached the rest of the party, he saw only one person in front of the portal: a Hyur paladin whose eyes never left the magically sealed door in front of him.

Joey’s eyes scanned the seal. According to what he saw, this barrier was created by a spell to temporarily lock out any other than one chosen few, and opened and shuttered by the caster themselves.

“Excuse me,” Joey said gently, hoping not to startle the paladin, “I’ve just arrived to help. Is it possible you can tell me what’s going—”

A cry on the other end of the sealed room startled any potential conversation they could’ve had. Both Joey and the paladin’s heads darted to the sealed room, where the monk on the other side collapsed limply to the ground. Hovering over him, the figure in white mage robes smiled a little too widely. Ribbon-like tassels billowed behind her elegantly as she slowly moved her outstretched hand to her face and licked her fingers.

“She didn’t used to be like this…” the paladin whimpered.

The magical barrier dissipated. However, although invisible to the naked eye, Joey still sensed that the barrier remained present, only as open as a door opened a crack.

“Who else shall succumb to the red string of fate?” said the white mage’s voice from within, her voice emitting a reverberating echo. “Remember: only one challenger at a time.”

The paladin moved forward to enter, but Joey held out a hand.

“Let me go first,” said Joey.

The paladin narrowed his eyes. “You don’t understand! This isn’t like her! She’s not a monster—she’s clearly being controlled by… something!”

Joey peered into the arena to see if he could see anything odd about her. As long as the origin was magic, he had a chance to help. But the moment he peered into the arena, the paladin grabbed Joey by the shoulder and whirled the Viera around to look at him.

“She means everything to me!” the paladin cried. “I can’t let a stranger fall prey to something that’s none of his business. I must take this burden upon myself!”

Joey wanted to say that if magic caused the problem, he could divine a solution. But he quickly envisioned the paladin’s response to show a blank stare, or that Joey would end up spending more time explaining himself than actually doing his job. “All the more reason for you to stay behind and figure out what’s going on. If nothing else, I’ll be the bait.”

The Paladin’s pursed lips and narrowed eyes showed that Joey’s words had convinced him the opposite of Joey’s intent. Thus, with one hand, Joey pushed the Paladin back and marched into the arena. Actions spoke louder than words, anyway.

The magical seal closed behind Joey. The Red Mage had sealed his fate.

Joey looked up to see the white mage while scanning the room with his peripheral vision. Much like the smaller arenas that lined Halatali’s seedy underground, the arena was a circular shape. Various bodies of fallen adventurers littered the outside perimeter—no doubt victims of this possessed White Mage.

As the white mage approached him using her tassels to walk much akin to a spider, Joey eyes scanned the area to see if he could find anything strange. All he saw was a bright white halo of her own magic before she came upon him.

“And yet another adventurer dares to volunteer himself to the slaughter. Another fly to the web; a lamb to the slaughter.” The White Mage licked her lips. 

Joey summoned his cane sword. At the very least, he showed her his willingness to cut to the chase.

The white mage wasted no time. Her tassels shot forth like rope darts. Joey hopped and dodged out of the way, the tassels shattering the ground and showering debris in the air in its wake. Joey circled around and then slid in, sword aimed at the white mage, only to get struck by a brilliant flash of white. Temporarily blinded, Joey held a hand over his eyes as a powerful strike slammed into his gut. He slid back and clenched his teeth. He was going to feel that later.

He waved his hand over his face, removing the excess aether that lingered over his eyes. The moment he could see again, he saw those damned tassels flying at him again. She wasn’t giving him any time to figure out what controlled her, if anything.

He had to take care of the tassels first. Using the cane half of his sword as a conduit, Joey fired off a chain of his own spells. Sparks of unaspected energy. Beans of thunder that streaked the sky, followed by magical swords accelerated into a piercing gust of wind. One by one, Joey’s onslaught pierced, sliced and burned through the tassels. One stray orb of wind struck the white mage’s torso. She cried out in pain.

“Don’t harm my girl!” cried the paladin from outside of the arena. “She’s all that I have left in this world.”

Joey clenched his teeth. The only person the paladin had left in this world certainly didn’t make things easy for the Viera.

The white mage floated over to Joey. “You think that ridding me of my magical limbs meant the end of me?”

Joey’s eyes widened. ‘Then the tassels weren’t a direct link to what was possessing her?’

“Oh no, adventurer, I have so much more to give.”

But as the white mage spoke those last words, Joey heard a voice in his head—a voice that sounded like the one speaking to him, but in a much softer, innocent tone.

Please, adventurer.  You have to help me!

Joey heard those softer words directly in his head. Her own thoughts?

“Come, let us partake in this dance macabre forever.”

Something’s taken hold of me. I don’t know what! It’s like I can’t even control my own body…

The white mage continued to babble with her outside voice, but Joey paid no heed. Instead, he took her gloating as an opportunity to survey his surroundings with his eyes. It was then where he saw the truth of her possession.

Magical wires laced around her limbs and her body, like strings of a marionette.

The white mage raised her staff in an attempt to summon another holy flash bomb, but Joey turned his back to her. He had enough time to see where the magical strings originated from anyway. As the flash bomb bursting harmlessly by his backside, Joey summoned another magical sword in his left hand. His dual blades sliced through the magical wires like cutting through thread.

And then Joey vaulted out of the ring.

The paladin watching from outside the arena tilted his head. What in the world was this adventurer doing? But then he saw Joey thrust his right blade at one of the corpses’ neck. Immediately, what appeared to be another victim at first glance rolled over, causing Joey’s blade to pierce through the ground. The clearly fake victim jumped to their feet.

Joey pointed his left blade at the fake victim’s throat as he pulled out his right blade. “Found you, puppetmaster.”

Slowly, a smile all too wide crept on the fake victim’s lips—a smile that matched the white mage’s own from earlier. “Congratulations. Out of all those here, you were the first one to find me. So? What do you plan to do about it?”

Behind Joey, the paladin cried out to his dear white mage. Joey’s ear perked behind him out of instinct.

And that moment of distraction was all it took for the puppetmaster to brandish a stone totem painted blue. Joey had seen those totems before, as they had been valuable artifacts he had been tasked for assistance to retrieve back in Tuliyollal.

The next thing Joey knew, he felt something thin yet powerful latch onto him as though embedding itself in his very being. He looked down to see the same magical wires that had ensnared the white mage now latched onto him. His legs took a step forward, his hands waved frantically as if the puppetmaster was testing his body.

He fell for it! I can’t believe it! This body will be far more useful for me than all of the others! With him as my puppet, I’ll be unstoppable! Joey heard the voice of the puppetmaster directly in his head. If the Viera could clench his teeth, he would. He had taken the puppetmaster’s bait and fell for the trap hook, line and sinker.

Joey tried to force his body to stop moving, but the lure of the magical strings made him continue to move against his will. Joey found his body turning around to face the paladin and the white mage, his dual swords brandished by his sides and all the aether still in the vicinity drawn into his blades. Seeing Joey, the paladin stood in front of the white mage and held his shield high, ready to defend against any onslaught the red mage had to offer.

“That’s it, my puppet. Show your worth to me by finishing these two off,” said the puppetmaster.

More and more aether charged into Joey’s blades with every step he took. He felt helpless as his body moved on its own like he was a mere stranger witnessing an impending act of horror with no power to stop it.

Or did he? Joey realized that he still had his own thoughts. As long as he did, he still had a chance to succeed.

“Now… show them what it means to feel helpless to Fate’s Tapestry,” said the puppetmaster.

Electrical energy charged within Joey—a high abundance of aether that his body couldn’t contain, as surges of electricity surrounded his body. The paladin charged his energy into his shield as a diamond-shaped barrier surrounded the white mage. The build-up of lightning aether reached its peak, ready to explode—

—except not on the paladin or the white mage.

Instead, willing the aether with his mind alone, Joey shot forth the energy of verthunder into the magical bindings that ensnared them. The lightning shot through the thread and into the puppetmaster’s own being. The puppetmaster’s cry shook as violently as his body, lightning crackling along his body until the surges of energy stopped. Smoke fizzled along his body as he fell to the ground, the totem rolling away from his limp hand.

Joey slumped forward on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. Sensing the tethers vanishing from his body, he moved his arm, then clenched his hand to see if he had any control of his body. Success. Control had returned to him.

The paladin and the white mage stood over the puppetmaster. They had some words to say, but Joey’s attention became too fixated on the totem to pay any heed. Small sparks of lightning aether grazed his fingers as he retrieved the totem. Unless someone was present to claim this artifact, Joey would just have to bring it to Tuliyollal himself.

Joey rose to his feet to see the paladin and the white mage deep in a warm embrace, muttering sweet nothings to each other. Without the totem, the puppetmaster had no more leverage on them. Feeling satisfied that he did a job well done, Joey decided to leave everything else to the local authorities and left the dungeon.